Virginia Senate Committee Approves Bills Banning Healthcare Mandates

The full Virginia Senate will now debate whether state residents will be held to possible federal mandates on health insurance after a series of bills passed the chamber’s commerce and labor committee.

On Jan. 25, by an 8-to-7 vote, the committee passed three similar bills, all rejecting any possible mandate on individuals to secure health insurance. Such a mandate could come as a result of ongoing negotiations in the U.S. House and Senate to combine their respective bills into one comprehensive health reform measure for the president’s signature.

The Virginia bills were sponsored by three Republican members of the committee – Stephen H. Martin (SB 311), Frederick M. Quayle (SB 283) and Jill Holtzman Vogel (SB 417) – and featured similar language banning any federal mandates for coverage, as well as exempting state residents from any “penalty, assessment, fee or fine” as a result of failing to secure insurance.

Similar bills are being proposed in the Virginia House of Delegates, including the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act (HB 10), filed by Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-13th District).

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