Tom Lubnau: The Wyoming House Needs To Think, Not Grandstand

Tom Lubnau writes, "The consequences of House Bill 164 are stunning. If a doctor injects a dementia patient with a muscle paralyzer with the intent of paralyzing the patient’s lungs so they can’t breathe and they die, the doctor can’t lose his job or lose his license for killing patients. It's euthanasia legalized."    

TL
Tom Lubnau

January 29, 20255 min read

Lubnau head 2
(Cowboy State Daily Staff)

The Freedom Caucus has taken over the Wyoming House of Representatives. To the cheers of some, and the chagrin of others, they are passing bills which have never before seen the light of day. Much of the legislation has passed limited testimony and without debate, analysis or real-world examination of the consequences of this political grandstanding. 

Property tax relief seems to be the topic of the session. The current House plan is to cut taxes of the first $2 million of a piece of residential property’s value, resulting in tax relief estimated at $197 million less in state revenue. Of course, richer people will see higher tax relief than poorer people under this plan. 

Property taxes fund local government. Small town hospitals hanging on by a thread, overstressed sheriffs and fire departments would be victims of these cuts. Any reduction in payments means decreased personnel and services. 

For example, in a state where we are already seeing huge swaths without emergency medical services coverage, obstetrics or other available medical coverage, more cuts mean fewer services. I guess if your house burns down or you die waiting on an ambulance, that’s OK because property taxes are lower. 

The Senate has its own misguided legislation pending in front of the Senate Revenue Committee.  Senate File 85, “Constitutional Enforcement of Localities,” would allow legislators to file complaints with the Wyoming Attorney General, if the legislator thinks a county, city or town is violating state law. 

The Attorney General would be required to investigate. If she determined the law is being broken, that county would lose all funds – no hearing, no right to appeal, no review. 

So, if one county official is not complying with public officer training requirements, for example, the county loses all its funding for the rest of the year, including sheriff, fire and road maintenance. 

Unborn babies bear the consequences of the House’s misguided decisions. The legislature’s insistence on passing poorly-written abortion legislation has resulted in Wyoming’s laws being deemed unconstitutional. As a result, abortion in Wyoming is legal. The House’s failure to pass constitutional legislation is resulting in more fetuses aborted, not fewer. 

Pregnant women in rural areas bear the consequences of the legislature’s attack on doctors. Draconian statutory legislation dealing with reproductive health results in difficulty recruiting physicians – particularly OB/GYNs to Wyoming. Wyoming has OB deserts where prenatal and emergency natal care is unavailable. 

The legislature is to blame, although they will point to others. When the legislature passes bills making it unattractive to practice medicine in Wyoming, they harm mothers and babies. One wonders what is important to the legislature. 

One particularly bizarre effort by the legislature is House Bill 164, whose stated purpose is to protect medical prescriptions for off-label purposes. 

The implied purpose of the bill is to allow physicians to prescribe the horse dewormer, Ivermectin, for whatever clinical purpose they choose. The ability of a physician to use legally marketed drugs or devices in any way they believe, in their professional judgment, has always been the practice in Wyoming. 

The legislature, most of whom do not know the difference between Ivermectin contraindications and a hole in the ground, should not place itself in the business of managing hospitals or prescribing drugs. That body has a hard enough time passing competent legislation. 

The consequences of this legislation are stunning. If a doctor injects a dementia patient – or any patient for that matter -- with a muscle paralyzer like succinylcholine with the intent of paralyzing a patient’s lungs so they can’t breathe and they die – guess what – they can’t be disciplined, lose their job or lose their license for killing patients.

The bill is euthanasia legalized. 

Under its language, physicians who conducted medical experiments with drugs would be immune from discipline. So, if a physician wanted to use drugs off-label to conduct all kinds of bizarre medical experiments, this bill would prohibit any type of discipline. 

On the positive side, Wyoming could start a closet industry having physicians prescribe anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to athletes willing to sacrifice their future for short term muscle gain. This bill authorizes those uses. 

Of course, if something bad happens, and the practitioner and the hospital are sued for malpractice, this legislation does nothing to address the damages the public will have to pay out of public coffers for the malpractice. Perhaps the legislature would be willing to increase property taxes to pay for all the malpractice actions it is authorizing. 

The Wyoming House needs a little less speed, a little more input, and a lot more thought before it continues to victimize people in the state.

Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 - 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com

Authors

TL

Tom Lubnau

Writer