Last Wednesday, about 30 state House Republican lawmakers pushed the passing of legislation that would guarantee Pennsylvanians the right to choose health care plans, regardless of federal mandates.

“Do you want Obamacare?” said Rep. Matthew Baker, R-Tioga County, the bill’s sponsor. “Do you want to pay higher taxes? Do you want less quality in heath care?”

Brett Marcy, a spokesman for House Majority Whip Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne County, called the bill ‘hollow political bluster’. “It seems the state House Republicans are only interested in perpetuating the right-wing propaganda of their national party,” Marcy said. “The voters are tired of these lies and scare tactics, and they’re tired of this kind of extremist political ideology.”

Regardless of Republican Scott Brown’s recent victory for a Massachusetts Senate seat as an opponent of federal health care, activists said they believe Congress will press ahead on the issue.

“I don’t think it is dead,” said Sharon Cherubin, executive director of UnitePA in Lancaster, who attended the event. “(State legislation) is a fail-safe measure. The big issue right now is, it’s being mandated. It’s unconstitutional.”

On the other hand, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell said later that President Obama and Congress should forge ahead with a health care bill. “I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding in the public about health care,” Rendell said. “We, and I’m including myself, haven’t done a good job of explaining it.”

Individual provisions are popular with the public, Rendell contended. He said the Massachusetts vote wasn’t a referendum on Obama or health care and instead was a function of local politics.

Pennsylvania is one of 25 states, along with Ohio and West Virginia, with legislation that would allow the state to “opt out” of federal health care mandates. In seven other states, legislators stated their intent to file such bills, said Christie Herrera, director of a task force for the American Legislative Exchange Council.