The Wyoming House passed the Health Care Freedom Amendment (SJ00002) today by a vote of 49-11. “This amendment is a strong move on the part of Wyoming to protect health care freedom,” said Benjamin Barr, the Group’s constitutional attorney. “With this amendment, the Wyoming Legislature recognizes the need to protect one of our most precious liberties – making individual decisions about our health care needs.”
The amendment is a state constitutional guarantee that promises that individual medical freedom will be respected as a matter of utmost priority in the state. The Health Care Freedom Amendment preserves residents’ rights to pay for medical services and make choices about what standard of care they deem appropriate. In addition, it charges the state of Wyoming with a new constitutional command: To preserve medical freedom. After passage, the amendment will be presented to the people of Wyoming to vote for in November 2012.
Although Wyoming is involved as part of the Florida multistate litigation against the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), this amendment goes further. Whatever may arise as a result of the multistate lawsuit, that decision will not prioritize the sovereignty of Wyoming in setting its own preferences for medical freedom. This amendment offers more than the Florida litigation ever could by rooting in the state constitution a permanent protection against future government interference in health care freedom.
Good work!