Tester cosponsors amendment to strengthen gun rights in health care bill

Measure forbids insurance companies from raising rates due to gun ownership

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Senator Jon Tester has thrown his support behind a bipartisan measure that will protect and strengthen gun rights in the Senate’s health care reform bill.

If passed, the amendment forbids companies from raising health insurance premiums or denying health care coverage to law-abiding Americans who keep guns in their homes.

It also forbids the federal government from collecting private information about guns, ammunition or “lawful storage” of firearms under the health care reform bill.

“In Montana, how many guns you own and where you keep them is nobody’s business—least of all the government’s or some health insurance company,” said Tester, vice chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus and a staunch supporter of gun rights.  “I’m a proud supporter of this amendment because it will strengthen our Second Amendment rights as we hold America’s insurance industry accountable.”

The gun rights amendment to the health care reform bill is available online HERE, along with all other health care amendments written and sponsored by Tester.

Tester also encourages all interested Montanans to read the Senate’s legislation on his website, tester.senate.gov/health.

Tester recently led a bipartisan effort in Congress to write a friend-of-the-court brief in favor of gun rights in the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming McDonald v. Chicago case.   The brief is signed by 309 senators and representatives—more members of Congress than any friend-of-the-court brief in U.S. history.