March 28, 2024 4:05 AM
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Rep Judy Burges Lauds Enactment of Legislation She Sponsored to Improve Rural Ambulance Services & Protect Rights of Parents to Make Health Care Decisions for Children

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

State Representative Judy Burges lauded the recent enactment of two important bills that she sponsored in the legislative session – one to improve ambulance services and response times for people in rural areas and another to protect the rights of Arizona parents to make health care decisions for their children.

HB 2609, which passed the legislature with wide bipartisan support, and was signed into law by Governor Ducey earlier this month, updates state statues regulating ambulance operations, licensing, and safety to improve services, especially in underserved rural areas. Changes include better tracking and public reporting of response times and the required installation of GPS monitoring devices to record arrival time data. The full list of bill provisions is available here.

“State statues regulating ambulance services, which were largely written in the 1970s and 80s, simply did not meet today’s needs,” said Representative Burges. “Inadequate coverage of ambulance services and longer response times, as experienced in rural areas, put human lives
at risk. This new law provides much-needed reform to improve ambulance services and response.”

The Governor has also signed the Health Care Freedom Act, originally sponsored by Representative Burges as HB 2611, and later passed as substitute language on HB 2371, which prohibits any government entity, including schools, from requiring children under 18 to receive a vaccination for
COVID-19 without the parent’s consent. Violations of the Health Care Freedom Act constitute a class 1 misdemeanor.

“Parents must have the authority to make health care decisions for their children, not the government,” Representative Burges added. “I’m proud to have originally sponsored this important legislation protecting parental rights in Arizona.”

Judy Burges is a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives serving Legislative District 1 in Yavapai County.

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