Rep. Phil Lopes advocates health coverage for all.

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PHOENIX — Lines are being drawn over the future of health- care reform in Arizona.

And voters will get to decide whether to limit the options.

On one side are proponents of providing coverage for all. Among the leaders of that group is House Minority Leader Phil Lopes, a Tucson Democrat.

But he is facing off against a group that wants to constitutionally prohibit forced enrollment in either private or government-run health-insurance programs.

The measure, which a judge said last week apparently has enough signatures to appear on the November ballot, also would bar any state law that limits an individual's choice of doctors.

Backers of Proposition 101 already have collected more than $400,000.

Hanging in the balance could be Lopes' plan for a kind of universal health care in Arizona, where everyone participates or pays. And while Lopes has been unable to get a hearing on his plan so far, all that could change if Democrats gain enough House seats in November to put them in the majority.

One of the organizers of the petition drive, Jeff Singer, a Phoenix surgeon, said the measure is not aimed at any specific plan or concept. Nor is it aimed at halting what he said is necessary reform of health care.

"We just want to make sure that whatever kind of health-care reform is ultimately instituted, that it doesn't infringe upon the rights of people to make their own decisions regarding what kind of plan they want to be in, or if they want to be in a plan, what kind of health care they want, what kind of doctor they want, whether they want alternative care, whatever," he said.

Singer said what he and backers of the initiative fear is "unintended consequences" of the push to revamp how health care is provided in Arizona — and in the country.

Lopes, however, is critical of that effort.

"They are trying to protect the system that I think everybody, most people, think is broken," he said.

What Lopes envisions is a single health insurer in Arizona: the state.

"It takes all the $35 billion we're spending now and puts it in one pot to assure that everybody in the state has health services," he said.

That includes not only what government is spending but also what is being paid by companies and individuals who buy insurance. And that, he said, requires all Arizonans to enroll "and kick in."

That clearly would be forbidden under the terms of the initiative. If approved, it 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."

Singer said the state could not enact any plan that barred individuals from paying for their own health care.

He said that's the Canadian system, where doctors are legally precluded from providing particular treatment or tests not covered by the national system. The result, said Singer, is Canadians who have the money come to the United States for care.

Lopes said his program would have no such restrictions. He said it would be like the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's program for insuring those below the federal poverty level, but for everyone.

"You've got a list of physicians or a list of hospitals where you could go," Lopes said.

He said that "possibly" would mean Arizonans with private coverage do not get to keep their current doctor. But Lopes said he believes most physicians will sign up because the plan will be "the only game in town."

Lopes also said the state program would not cover every possible procedure.

"Just like every commercial insurance company out there, there's a set of benefits," he said. Lopes predicted providing all Arizonans with the same package now available to state employees.

"Now that doesn't include everything," he said. "But it includes the lion's share of what people need."

Those who want services not provided under the state plan still would have the ability to obtain them — with their own money.

Singer compared the initiative with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which limits the ability of government to infringe on individual rights. "It's to protect us against things that we don't want to see happen," he said.