ATLANTA – A bill that prohibits the mandatory participation in any healthcare system, including the federal measure Congress passed last month, now heads to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s desk.
SB 317, which declares that no law can force a Georgia resident to buy health insurance, was passed after it was added as an amendment to SB 411.
“My original bill intended to shield every person in our state from having their basic rights of choice infringed upon by an unwanted government mandate,” state Sen. Judson Hill, R-Marietta, said in a news release. “With the passage of my measure, we will all continue to enjoy those rights to purchase private or public healthcare, or decline to participate in any healthcare plan at all.”
SB 411, sponsored by Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, allows individual and group health insurance plans to “provide rewards or incentives for Georgians involved in good health and preventative measures.”
Separately, Perdue, a Republican, is moving forward with a legal challenge to the controversial health care law Congress passed. Earlier this month he appointed a Macon attorney as special counsel to head up the challenge.
