ARIZONA

Arizona Health-Freedom Proposition Narrowly Defeated

January 2009

In the recent American 2008 elections, various States had propositions on their ballots for citizen consideration and voting. In Arizona, one such proposition was Proposition 101 (the “Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act”), which was an initiative on its Nov. 4th ballot proposing to amend the Arizona Constitution to ensure freedom of choice in health plans and the right to pay privately for lawful medical services.

Unfortunately, Proposition 101 did not pass. While Proposition 101 won in 12 out of 15 Arizona counties, it failed to pass on the Statewide popular vote by 1,048,624 to 1,039,585 votes (50.2 to 49.8 percent), a very small margin. The Proposition’s backers, Drs. Eric Novack and Jeffrey Singer, announced, "We regret that we were unable to overcome the significant financial disadvantage we had and the intervention of the Governor and a major state agency in the campaign. Regardless, we are proud of the effort we put forward and are looking forward to continuing to be a part of the health care reform discussion in our state well into the future."

Given the close vote, this proposition will almost certainly be placed back on the Arizona ballot in 2010 for voter approval.