Jefferson City, Mo. (AP) - Although President Barack Obama's push for a health care overhaul has stalled, conservative lawmakers in about half the states are forging ahead with constitutional amendments to ban government health insurance mandates.
 
  The proposals would assert a state-based right for people to pay medical bills from their own pocketbooks and prohibit penalties against those who refuse to carry health insurance.
 
  In many states, the proposals began as a backlash to Democratic health care plans pending in Congress. But instead of backing away after a Massachusetts election gave Senate Republicans the filibuster power to halt the health care legislation, many state lawmakers are ramping up their efforts with new enthusiasm.

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today in a letter urged members of Congress from 22 "right-to-work" states to oppose a 40 percent excise tax on non-union health care plans that "will hit your states and districts particularly hard, and is grossly unfair to non-union workers."

"I am calling upon you to publicly denounce this blatant attack upon the citizens of your state. They will, I am certain, be eagerly awaiting your response," Wilson declared in his letter, calling the tax on non-union health insurance plans "contemptible."

"This is absolutely deplorable to American workers, 92 percent of whom do not belong to unions," wrote Wilson his letter. "In essence, non-union employers and employees will be forced to subsidize the cost of exempting union workers from the tax, which will cost families in your states and districts thousands of dollars a year in additional charges."