One of Wyoming’s oldest and largest healthcare lobbyists opposes conservative values and represents the interests of the largest healthcare companies in the world.
And who is that? Allow us to introduce you to the Wyoming Medical Society (WMS).
Founded in 1903, the WMS states that it “serves our membership, and their patients, and works to improve the health of Wyoming’s citizens.” In practice, however, the WMS often functions less as a champion of patients and physicians in Wyoming and more as a vehicle for advancing left-leaning healthcare policies while boosting the profits of large, out-of-state pharmaceutical companies, insurers, and other players in the medical-industrial complex.
The WMS maintains a constant presence in Cheyenne during each legislative session, working aggressively behind the scenes to influence lawmakers and shape the fate of key bills. As we inch closer to 2026, when Wyoming’s lawmakers will return to Cheyenne for a new term, it is critical to make clear—loudly and widely—that the WMS is not acting in the best interests of Wyoming residents.
Birds of a feather
Although the WMS claims to be an independent organization, in reality it is closely aligned with the American Medical Association (AMA), the largest healthcare lobbyist in the country.The WMS sends delegates to participate in the annual meeting of the AMA’s House of Delegates, where members adopt official policies. The WMS and the AMA have a long history of collaborating on initiatives. Recently, WMS President Sheila Bush shared the stage with the AMA’s senior legislative attorney at a gathering in Maryland. These close connections make it clear that the WMS and AMA truly are birds of a feather.
Let’s be clear about the AMA. The AMA has been a—perhaps the—leading national torchbearer for youth transgender medicine and abortion rights for years. Former AMA President Jack Resneck Jr. said it was “disinformation” to claim hospitals are performing sex change surgeries on teens, while urging them to continue providing broader “gender-affirming care.” Yet according to Do No Harm, an organization that tracks pediatric sex change treatments, doctors performed nearly 6,000 sex change operations on minors between 2019 and 2023. So who, exactlywas spreading disinformation?
Resneck also proclaimed that “AMA policy supports patients’ access to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare options, including abortion and contraception, as a right.”
The AMA’s noxious influence can be seen in the Spring 2023 issue of WMS’ magazine, “Wyoming Medicine,” which featured—and promoted on the cover—an article defending transgender healthcare for children. That article was one reason why radiologist and WMS member Dr. Eric Cubin publicly said, “the Wyoming Medical Society has been essentially hijacked by the far left.” Shortly after those candid remarks, Gov. Mark Gordon (R) removed Cubin from the Wyoming Board of Medicine.
The ties go even deeper. WMS President Sheila Bush also serves as executive director of the Wyoming chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)—an organization that champions youth transgender medicine and actively opposes parental rights. (Read more about the WY-AAP and its parent organization here.)
It should go without saying that the AMA’s advocacy of so many progressive policies is fundamentally at odds with our values. Wyoming is a conservative state, full of people who believe in protecting the sanctity of life and the innocence of children. This raises the question of why the WMS works so closely with an organization so obviously determined to undermine our State’s values and ways of life.
Pulling strings
The WMS spends a considerable amount of time in Cheyenne each legislative session lobbying for and against healthcare-related bills. Much of its time and energy is spent opposing bills that advance Wyoming’s conservative values.
Here are a few from the most recent legislative session:
- HB 141 died in the Wyoming House of Representatives. It would have made it illegal for the state of Wyoming to use guidance by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) as the basis of mask or vaccine mandates. The WMS, like the AMA, supports mask and vaccine mandates.
- HB 42, which Gov. Gordon signed into law in February, places common sense regulations on abortion clinics. While abortion is always wrong and ought to be made illegal in the state, this law merely ensures that any abortion clinics abide by the same standards expected of other healthcare facilities. Among other things, HB 42 requires that any physicians performing abortions can refer patients to nearby hospitals—an arrangement known as “admitting privileges” that applies to many doctors outside of the context of abortion. The WMS opposed HB 42, like it opposes all regulations on abortion providers.
- HB 222 passed the House of Representatives but died in the Senate. It would have protected healthcare providers’ freedom of conscience by allowing them to decline to perform procedures that violate their religious beliefs. The WMS opposed this bill, but what could be more basic than the freedom to act according to conscience?
And let’s not forget that, in 2024, the WMS spearheaded the campaign to defeat SF 99, which prohibits doctors from administering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or performing surgeries for the purposes of facilitating gender transitions on minors. Thankfully, its campaign failed and SF 99 became law.
Who benefits?
Why does the Wyoming Medical Society stand in such fierce opposition to freedom and the conservative values that make this state great?
The WMS’ website supplies a ready answer to that question. Under “Friends of Wyoming Medical Society,” visitors are treated to a who’s who of the powerful medical-industrial complex—Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, UCHealth, Banner Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and so on. These conglomerates are at the center of our convoluted, inaccessible medical system, the web of insurers, hospitals, and for-profit pharmacies that use their influence to establish the rules of the game and profit from it.
These corporations, many of them operating around the globe and completely disconnected from the lives of ordinary people in this country, are also evangelists for wokeness. Staffed by Ivy League and medical school social justice warriors, the medical-industrial complex has aggressively pushed DEI, Critical Race Theory, anti-racism, abortion, transgender ideology, and other progressive beliefs, both in its corporate board rooms and hospitals.
The Wyoming Medical Society clearly represents the interests of its massively profitable “friends” over the people of Wyoming.