HB506 directs the Department of Community Health to provide Medicaid coverage for “tobacco cessation treatments.”
The House passed HB506 on March 3, 2025, by a vote of 142 to 31. We have assigned pluses to the nays because not only are anti-tobacco “public health” initiatives outside the limited purpose and scope of government, but Medicaid is a jointly financed federal-state program that is unauthorized according to Article 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution. This bill entrenches Georgia in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ever-expanding unconstitutional war on tobacco, which seeks to deny basic personal freedoms (e.g., the right to purchase or sell tobacco) and eradicate an entire industry, while relying on immoral and discriminatory forms of taxation (e.g., income taxes) that unjustly provide “medical assistance” benefits to “eligible” persons, who have little or no tax liability, at the expense of others. The Constitution’s Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment were written to prevent “nanny state” big-government policies and the reckless use of taxpayer money.
