SALEM (AP) — The Oregon House narrowly approved a bill to let voters decide if affordable health care is a fundamental right.

House Joint Resolution 100 would amend the Oregon Constitution to make health care a right and order the Legislature to adopt a plan for giving every legal resident access to affordable health care.

The bill passed 31-29 Wednesday along strict party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republican opposed. The bill next moves to the Senate, where the Democrats enjoy a stronger majority.

If the Senate approves, the question would appear on the November ballot. Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s signature is not needed.

The vote was a victory for Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, the chairman of the House Health Care Committee who has trying for three years to help the uninsured.

During debate, Greenlick described how he would have lost his battle with lymphoma, now in remission, if he had not had health insurance. That so many suffer for lack of health care is unjust, he said.

“Rights are the products of wrongs; they come from human experience, particularly experience with injustice,” he said.

But Rep. Scott Bruun, R-West Linn, said rights are God-given and “cannot be added to or detracted from by the whimsy of man.” A long list of worthwhile ideals could be called rights, he said.

“Let’s acknowledge health care is important,” he said, “but it is not a right.”

Republican opponents said the resolution would expand government, socialize medicine and create another entitlement program.

“Cost is the elephant in this room,” said Rep. Linda Flores, R-Clackamas.

But Greenlick said the resolution does not create socialized medicine or require government to spend money it doesn’t have. The Oregon Constitution guarantees all children a public education, he said, but lets the Legislature work out how much it can spend. The same would be true if the constitution guaranteed health care, he said.

“The most expensive thing we could do is keep the system we have now.”

In 2002, Oregon voters overwhelmingly defeated an initiative that would have made the state the first in the nation to offer universal health care.

— Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com.