Florida House Joint Resolution 37, Health Care Freedom Amendment Changes

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Written by Steven Burden

Wednesday, 21 April 2010 10:24

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As the Health Care Freedom Amendment (HCFA) proceeded through the various committees, it has had two changes applied. When dealing with proposed legislation, changes can appear subtle but in reality can essentially gut the bill. This is what happened to one version of Ron Paul’s ‘Audit the Fed’ bill, which caused him to eventually vote against the final bill. Since even small changes can be so critical, I thought to convert the original and final versions of the HCFA and track the changes. The first page of the final version that is headed to the floor for a vote is displayed below, and all three versions are available for download in Microsoft Word format at the links below.

There appear to be only two substantive changes that could potentially affect the final bill. The first is the substitution of ‘may’ for ‘shall’. This can be a significant legal change as was shown in Concealed Carry law here in Florida. The simple substitution of ‘shall issue’ for ‘may issue’ is what compels the issuance of a concealed carry license to individuals if there is no reason to withhold it. On the other hand, in some cases, this type of substitution is legally insignificant; it all depends on the context. In the HCFA it appears that the simple substitution is not significant, but it will take an attorney to make a definitive call.

The next change that does have a substantial impact on the final Constitutional Amendment is the addition of section (c) (6) which allows the legislature to override the amendment with a law passed by a 2/3 majority in both houses of the Florida Legislature. This is a significant change which does dilute the final Amendment. It is, however a higher bar than a simple majority.