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RALEIGH — Republican state lawmakers say they will push for a bill that would head off a key piece of the federal health insurance overhaul now being negotiated in Congress.

“The crux of the bill will be that citizens in North Carolina ... would not be compelled by the federal government to purchase a particular type of or particular amount of health care,” said Sen. Phil Berger , an Eden Republican and his party’s leader in the Senate.

Such personal mandates have figured into some versions of the health care bill. But it is unclear whether the bill that emerges from negotiations between the U.S. House and Senate would include such a requirement or what it would look like.

As for attempts to block such requirements, there are several practical obstacles to any such state measure becoming law.

The 2010 legislative session does not begin until May. Democrats control both the state House and Senate and have not been prone to picking fights with their federal cousins.

Also, federal law typically trumps state law in the courts. Republicans say, however, that federal courts have checked federal power in some instances.

House Speaker Joe Hackney, a Democrat, downplayed the proposal.

“I assume it’s another political event, not a substantive legislative event,” he said. “Otherwise, they would be trying to work it through a study commission or something like that,” he added, referring to the typical channels for promoting bills between legislative sessions.

Republicans acknowledged that they think health care could be a good issue for their party in the November election. Berger said he believed congressional Democrats were at “a crossroads.”

“They’re either going to ram this thing through. In which case, yeah, I think it will still be resonating in November....The other choice that they’ve got is...they back up. At that point, I think it’s going to resonate in a different way.”

If Democrats fail to pass a health bill, their core supporters likely will become disenchanted. “Either way it goes, the consequences of the health care initiative will play out in this fall’s elections,” Berger said.

Ten months is a long time for political ground to shift, Hackney said. “The federal debate is having some impact in the current polls, but where we’ll be next fall on all of that is anybody’s guess,” Hackney said.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com