BONNIE BRUNO

HB 1671 — Why I Oppose This bill weaponizes Medicaid to enforce ideology. Medicaid exists to provide patient care—not to coerce healthcare providers into adopting the legislature’s preferred employment policies. It interferes with medical and workplace safety standards. Healthcare providers must be able to set vaccination requirements to protect patients, staff, and trainees—especially in high-risk clinical settings. It elevates individual exemptions over public health. The bill prioritizes personal vaccine exemptions above patient safety, infection control, and evidence-based healthcare practices. It undermines provider autonomy and clinical judgment. Decisions about staffing, training, and workplace safety should be made by medical professionals—not dictated by partisan lawmaking. It creates a chilling effect on healthcare systems. Threatening loss of Medicaid funding pressures providers to lower safety standards or face financial punishment. It adds bureaucracy without solving a real problem. The bill creates new enforcement costs and administrative burden while addressing no demonstrated pattern of unlawful discrimination. This is ideological protectionism, not civil rights. Existing anti-discrimination laws already protect workers. HB 1671 selectively reframes vaccine refusal as discrimination to shield a political agenda.