OH voters say no to health insurance mandates

It won't be the body blow to President Barack Obama's health-care law that some might have hoped, but Ohio voters yesterday overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment voicing their displeasure with a federal law requiring most Americans to buy health insurance by 2014 or face fines. Issue 3, the healthcare amendment, was approved by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, winning in every county. Despite campaign rhetoric from some supporters, it won't exempt Ohio from the most-controversial requirement of the president's signature legislative achievement because federal law trumps state law. The constitutionality of the healthcare mandate, most legal experts agree, will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, not Ohio voters.