A bill to create a Wyoming Healthcare Commission was soundly rejected Friday by the Joint Health, Labor and Social Services Committee over concerns Gov. Mark Gordon could overstep his authority with it.
The commission would have served as an advisory group, monitor changes in the health care industry and offer policy recommendations to state legislators. Its members would have been selected by the governor and would have been considered a quasi-governmental entity and executive branch cabinet member serving under Gordon’s authority.
Opponents of the bill on the committee expressed fears that creating the commission could lead to a violation of separation of powers by Gordon’s office and an expansion of powers for his executive branch.
Distrust
During the meeting, outgoing state Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, said that because of “certain social media threads” it’s “very unlikely” a health care commission bill would pass in the next session.
The committee didn’t even bother voting on it, as a straw poll Zwonitzer conducted at the start of the discussion showed that very few members even wanted to discuss it.
When the commission topic was brought up in April, some members of the committee objected, saying that a task force predominantly made up of health care industry representatives would push an agenda.
During that meeting, Rep. Sarah Penn, R-Fort Washakie, argued the Legislature’s relationship with the health care industry already isn’t working well and questioned why the goals of the commission couldn’t be achieved through the mechanisms that currently exist.
Sen. Lynn Hutchings, R-Cheyenne, expanded on that thought Friday, saying the commission would add another layer of government bureaucracy filled by members many from the public allegedly don’t trust.
Zwonitzer told Cowboy State Daily that the Legislature has fallen into the habit of flatly rejecting data it doesn’t agree with or like.
“After COVID, there has been a large sense of mistrust of data, scientific data,” he said. “The last couple of years, we don’t seem to care about data at all, we don’t trust it.”
Changing Times
The draft bill establishing the commission was very similar to a 2003 version of the bill that had passed unanimously in both chambers of the Legislature and led to it existing for six years.
Sheila Bush, executive director of the Wyoming Medical Society, acknowledged how much the relationship between politics and health care — and particularly the perception of medical experts — has changed since that time.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a growing sentiment of expressed distrust among conservative circles for the advice of health care leaders.
Carolyn Paseneaux of the Wyoming Health Care Association also acknowledged this dynamic, mentioning how there are more and more educated people who don’t want government interference in the healthcare space.
“It is a changing world, and I believe the Legislature will lead that forward,” she said.
Zwonitzer believes that’s an “anti-intellectual” sentiment.
At the April meeting on the topic, some members of the committee said the commission would be predominantly made up of health care industry representatives and therefore push an agenda.
“I’m not sure who the Freedom Caucus wanted (on the commission) but it certainly didn’t want academics or professionals on it,” he said.
The purpose of the Health Care Commission was to facilitate better information on health care resources, access and affordability to legislators.
Similar commissions already exist for other industries like energy and gaming in Wyoming.
Jen Davis, head of Health and Human Services for Gordon, said in order for Wyoming to diversify its economy into the future, it will also need to improve its health care infrastructure. She sees developing the commission as making health care a priority in Wyoming by getting a variety of different perspectives on it.
“By having a commission, it really elevates the conversation that this is important to Wyoming and we need to continually have a body working on those issues that can have expertise and buy-in from all areas of industry,” she said.
Bush also mentioned how unlike in other legislatures, Wyoming state lawmakers don’t have paid staffers to help them research issues.
“This a tool that the Legislature can wield at its direction,” she said.
Rep. Ben Hornok, R-Cheyenne, said no one on the committee is opposed to making health care a high priority in the Legislature, but sees rejecting the commission as a matter of respecting separation of powers.
He mentioned a veto Gordon made earlier this year on a completely different topic relating to the BLM’s Resource Management Plan for the Rock Springs area, where the governor warned against overstepping the branches of government and allowing the Legislature to file lawsuits.
“His letter made sense, it makes a good point about those separation of powers and how important that is,” he said.
Hornok also questioned how the commission proposal doesn’t overstep the executive branch’s power. Bush responded that the commission would work at the direction of the Legislature, not the governor, as an advisory panel.
Hutchings warned that a commission could distort the communication that already occurs between lawmakers and members of the health care industry.
“I’m just glad we put this bill behind us and I just pray that we can work even better now that we know some of your intentions,” she said.
Background
In 2020, Gordon initiated a Health Task Force during the height of the pandemic to address immediate needs of the health care industry and develop strategies for implementation to avoid serious complications and death.
Once the pandemic started to wane, the Health Task Force continued, but changed its trajectory to focus on health care issues relevant to Wyoming. It was the intention of the commission, which would have been written into state law and made permanent, to be an evolution of the task force, which could expire at the end of the Gordon administration.
The commission bill faced opposition throughout the summer and Zwonitzer admitted its chances didn’t look strong even before last week’s primary election. As a result of that election, four members of the committee, including Zwonitzer, lost their reelection bids. Another four are retiring.
“While it was becoming increasingly obvious we didn’t have the votes, we certainly don’t have the votes in the House after the election,” Zwonitze said.
Davis encouraged the members of the committee that weren’t voted out of office to continue working with health care industry leaders.
“It’s really important we all work on this together,” she said.
The committee did advance legislation Friday authorizing music therapy as a protected profession.
Still, Zwonitzer said he was very disappointed with the progress the committee made during the interim session and believes legislators are not using the two days of paid research time they get for each meeting.
“In my 20 years in the Legislature, this was my least productive standing committee I’ve ever served on,” he said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
