Senate File 193 made a big splash in the national media late last week when Daniel Horowitz called it the “gold standard” of legislation addressing vaccine mandates. The Iowa Standard reviewed the subcommittee hearing on the bill over the weekend and we’re sharing why groups oppose the so-called “gold standard” legislation.
Dennis Tibben testified on behalf of the Iowa Medical Society and American Academy of Pediatrics-Iowa Chapter.
Tibben said both groups had concerns with the legislation, specifically Division II. That division of the bill prohibits vaccine mandates relative to facilities, providers and insurers.
Here is a portion of the division Tibben spoke against:
A hospital or health care facility shall not do any of the following:
Require a health care provider, staff member, employee or applicant for one of these positions to be immunized;
Discriminate against or terminate the employment of a health care provider, staff member, employee or applicant for one of these positions based on the person’s refusal to receive an immunization;
A hospital, health care facility or a health care provider, staff member or employee of a hospital or health care facility shall not discriminate against or terminate treatment of a patient based upon the patient’s refusal to receive an immunization;
A health care facility or assisted living program shall not discriminate against or terminate treatment of a resident or tenant solely on the basis of the resident or tenant not having received, or refusing to receive, an immunization for a specific communicable disease;
A hospital, health care facility or educational institution providing clinical experience to satisfy the professional degree requirements of a student, intern or resident shall not discriminate against the student, intern, or resident, or prohibit admission, enrollment or employment as a student, intern or resident based on the immunization status of the student, intern or resident;
A hospital, health care facility, health care provider, educational institution or assisted living program that violates this section is not eligible to receive state funding for reimbursement of services provided to patients, residents or tenants.
Here is some of Tibben’s testimony:
“I want to speak specifically to Division II of the bill — that section speaking to the inability of health care providers to restrict their employees and also restrict patients that have chosen to not get vaccinated,” Tibben said. “We need to recognize that in the healthcare setting, it is a different set of circumstances and putting in place that division, we believe, would unnecessarily restrict the ability for a healthcare setting to set up protocols to keep their patients safe.”
Here are the top 10 recipients of donations from the Iowa Medical Society from 2019-20:
