If the Health Care Freedom Amendment (Amendment A) receives “yes” votes from more than 50% of those who vote in the Wyoming general election this November, the following words will be added to the Declaration of Rights in the Wyoming Constitution:
Article 1, Section 38 – Right of Health Care Access
(a) Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions. The parent, guardian or legal representative of any other natural person shall have the right to make health care decisions for that person.
(b) Any person may pay, and a health care provider may accept, direct payment for health care without imposition of penalties or fines for doing so.
(c) The legislature may determine reasonable and necessary restrictions on the rights granted under this section to protect the health and general welfare of the people or to accomplish the other purposes set forth in the Wyoming Constitution.
(d) The state of Wyoming shall act to preserve these rights from undue govern-mental infringement.
Amendment A will protect health care freedom with straightforward language. It will serve as a powerful tool to prevent the Wyoming legislature from even considering laws that invade health care choice. It will prevent abuse of these rights by enabling the legislature to continue to restrict abortion, assisted suicide, recreational drug use and other abuses. It will make it a duty of all branches of the Wyoming government to respect health care freedom.
Currently, the Wyoming government has power over health care because it is considered a police power. The police powers are “numerous and indefinite” and left to the states (Federalist Paper #45), subject to their citizens, their respective constitutions and the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution. Today, there is no specific protection of health care freedom embodied in either the Wyoming or U.S. Constitutions. In fact, in the Wyoming constitution, the police powers are currently “supreme over all corporations as well as individuals” (Wyo. Const. art. 10, §2) and allow Wyoming to implement Massachusetts-style (or worse) health care systems. Amendment A will limit Wyoming’s police powers in health care to passing “reasonable and necessary restrictions . . . to protect the health and general welfare of the people,” and these must respect individual decisions and direct payment. Amendment A must be ratified to prevent state-mandated health care and establish an alternative legal challenge to federal systems like Obamacare.
Amendment A is not perfect; it will not by itself protect health care freedom. After it is ratified, an active citizenry must ensure it is followed. Its meaning must be established by tradition as much as its own wording. Law cannot accomplish anything on its own: even the First Amendment, which states “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech” has not stopped Congress from passing such laws many times since 1788. It is only by vigilance and action that the freedom of speech has remained a right, and the same will be true for health care freedom.
Amendment A, when ratified and utilized by vigilant Wyomingites, will be a powerful step against federal and state violations of health care freedom.
For an in-depth analysis of the Health Care Freedom Amendment, visit
To see the Health Care Freedom Amendment as part of the big picture of free market health care reform, visit
http://wyliberty.org/liberty-brief/the-five-step-plan-to-achieve-national-health-care-reform/
