I need to explain a vote I took this week that has been very troublesome to me and perhaps to you. Iowans, and the world for that matter, have been battling against Covid or Covid vaccine restrictions for two years now. A couple of colleagues filed a bill that would give everyone freedom from invasive questions about a person’s medical status. Portions of this bill were added to another bill consisting of three topics, making now four separate topics. The rationale was none of the topics would pass on their own merit. In my opinion, this is an unacceptable way to do business. It looks like Washington! Enough legislators stood against that idea and so two of the topics were pulled from the bill leaving the Health Privacy Protections portion and Tort Liability of commercial motor vehicles. Again, two totally unrelated subjects. We were being asked to trade one freedom for another; limit what a person could be awarded in an egregious accident for a person’s right to privacy of their health information. Both are important and we were being asked to sacrifice one of them. I just couldn’t do it.
I so badly wanted to pass the Medical Privacy bill that was originally filed. It was not Covid specific, but protected all of our medical information. The latter bill was Covid specific, which would have been helpful at the moment. I was disappointed that Health Insurance companies were exempt from the latter Privacy Protections bill which would allow them to inquire about your Covid medical treatment and refuse or deny services. I also struggled with codifying “when federal law otherwise requires”, which was stated in the bill several times. I am very much in favor of state sovereignty and this seemed to say that federal law supersedes state law. I realize the federal government is doing this all the time, but when it is stated in code, it will be much more difficult to overcome.
I know there is a need to protect citizens from invasion of privacy and I feel absolutely awful that we didn’t have the opportunity to vote on it as a stand-alone. Pray that we will still, by some miracle, have the opportunity to do so.
Maybe we need a constitutional amendment for Iowa that all bills must be a stand-alone and a permanent record of how legislators vote on anything, whether in sub committee, in committees etc. They must be transparent on anything the do on “behalf of we the people”. Of course some legislators that that is simply crazy. Crazy that people want to hold them accountable.
Problem for them is that we’re awake and ever more are awakening to their treacherous behavior and willful violation of their oath to the Constitution. Oh how the Founding Fathers must weep when they behold the scum and villiany in control of our governments.