Related articles:

Health-care issue is off ballot for now Health-care lines come into focus

Other articles by Howard Fischer:

Burns: Brewer bungling her job House approves boost in funding for those seeking office next year 3 recommended to Brewer to fill seat on high court AZ can enact own greenhouse gas regsRecession reins in sprawl Pet bills aplenty pouring forth from Legislature Brewer wants budget right away, but not those other, lesser bills Flat-tax plan could hit walletsRepeal of ban on sparklers nears final OK Ballot-imposed limits on lawmakers battled

General
A1 Communications
Cable Techs Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION

PHOENIX — Arizonans will get to decide in November whether they want to block the state from imposing a universal health-care program, after all.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Aceto ruled Thursday that 22 signatures originally declared invalid on the petitions for Proposition 101 should be counted. The 22 were from a random sample of 5 percent of all names checked by the Maricopa County Recorder's Office.

When you add those names back in to the formula used to initially check petitions by counting just a random sample, it gives the initiative enough signatures to qualify.

Deputy County Attorney Colleen Connor defended the decision of County Recorder Helen Purcell to disqualify the signatures in the first place.

She said the 22 names in question all had either the wrong date or an incomplete date on which each person signed the petitions. Connor said state law specifically requires Purcell not to count these.

But Aceto said all he legally has to conclude is that there is evidence of the date the petition actually was signed and that each signer was a registered voter on that date.

For example, one petition was listed as being signed "8/08/08."

Andrew Chavez, owner of Petition Partners, the firm hired by backers of the initiative, testified that was not possible, as the petitions were turned in to the Secretary of State's Office before the July 3, 2008, deadline. And Chavez noted the dates listed for signatures above and below the one questioned all showed "4/8/08."

There also were some signatures collected in January where the signer listed the year as 2007, before the petitions were even on the street.

Thursday's ruling is a major victory for the backers of the campaign, headed by two Arizona doctors.

Proposition 101, if approved in November, would bar enactment of any law that would require people to enroll in health-care or health-insurance programs or to have to contribute to such programs for refusing to participate.

That is similar to a "play or pay" law enacted in Massachusetts. Employers either must provide health-care coverage to their workers in line with state mandates or pay a fee to the state.

State House Minority Leader Phil Lopes, D-Tucson, has proposed a universal health-care plan that would pool everything being spent by all parties on health care — including government, business and individuals — to set up a plan under which everyone gets the same basic coverage. Lopes has pegged the cost at close to $35 billion.

That clearly would be forbidden under the terms of the initiative, which would bar the passage of any law, by the Legislature or voters, "that restricts a person's freedom of choice of private health-care systems or private plans of any type."

Eric Novack, a Phoenix orthopedic surgeon, said backers of the initiative are not necessarily opposed to universal health care.

"We just think that health-care reform has to have the rights that we lay out in our initiative protected," he said. "Health-care reform can be built on top of these rights."

Novack conceded passage of Proposition 101 would constitutionally preclude "certain options."

Backers of the measure have so far collected more than $400,000. The largest single donation is $75,000 from Dawson Management Group, the firm that manages the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. Resort spokeswoman Josee Lafleche said John Dawson, chairman of the company, "strongly believes in the individual right to choose his or her own health-care package."

The next largest contribution is $20,000 from Tucson auto dealer Jim Click.

A non-profit corporation called The Benjamin Rush League, formed by Novack and Singer, put in $17,000. Benjamin Rush, a Pennsylvania physician, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.