Governor Gary Herbert has made Utah the third state to pass the “Health Care Freedom Act” into law. House Bill 67 (HB67) was introduced by Rep. Carl Wimmer and passed the House and Senate by votes of 53-20 and 22-7, respectively.

The bill “prohibits a state agency or department from implementing federal health care reform passed by the United States Congress after March 1, 2010, unless a state agency reports to the Legislature regarding costs and impact on state reform efforts.” It authorizes the state legislature to specifically approve or deny implementation of federal health care legislation.

In short, it requires the state “to opt out of federal reform when the state determines that opting out is in the best interest of the citizens of the state.”

Governor Otter of Idaho signed similar legislation last week, and issued the following statement:

“Congress and the White House are working out their scheme for pushing through a healthcare ‘reform’ bill that has more pages than the U.S. Constitution has words. I guarantee you that not a single member of the House or Senate has a complete understanding of that legislation any more than they understood all the implications of the USA PATRIOT Act back in 2001,” Governor Otter said. “What the Idaho Health Freedom Act says is that the citizens of our state won’t be subject to another federal mandate or turn over another part of their life to government control.”

Yesterday, Governor McDonnell signed the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act, which passed the legislature there last month.

More than 2 dozen other states are considering similar legislation or state constitutional amendments to do the same. Many legislators and governors are calling for a federal lawsuit to affirm the principles of the state laws. But some constitutional scholars, including famed legal theorist Randy Barnett, have indicated that decades of precedent from the supreme court makes such legal challenges difficult, at best.

But that doesn’t mean that the court is right. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, warned us that if the federal government ever were to become the sole and final arbiter of the extent of its own powers, those powers would never remain limited – thus, the reason they advocated for nullification and interposition in those resolutions.

The Tenth Amendment Center has released the Federal Health Care Nullification Act, which directly nullifies the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” on a state level. Click here to learn more.

CLICK HERE to view the Tenth Amendment Center’s health care freedom act tracking page

Michael Boldin

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