A bill that would ban discrimination on the basis of COVID-19 vaccination status passed the Alaska Senate on March 16 in a move to limit state service providers and private businesses from requiring the life-saving vaccine.
The bill, sponsored by Eagle River Republican Sen. Lora Reinbold, would make it illegal for the state to withhold services based on COVID-19 vaccination status, such as in public education or assisted living in Pioneer Homes. The bill would also ban private businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations as a condition for employment.
Reinbold has repeated false information about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and is banned from Alaska Airlines flights for failing to adhere to the federal law requiring face masks. She said the goal of the bill is to avoid discriminating against people who refuse to get vaccinated against the deadly Coronavirus.
The measure passed the Senate in a 13-6 vote, garnering support from Democratic senators Tom Begich and Elvi Gray-Jackson alongside most Republicans.
The legislation, however, has “a low probability of success,” in the House, said Anchorage Rep. Ivy Sponholz. She said the state already allows people to get exclusions for vaccination requirements based on health circumstances or religious beliefs.
Anchorage Rep. Liz Snyder, who co-chairs the House Health and Social Services Committee, called it a “problematic bill” and indicated she was not likely to prioritize it during the final two months of the legislative session.
“We like to prioritize bills that can have the most meaningful impact and that actually are likely to pass and be implemented,” Snyder said.
Those who opposed the bill raised concern over its impacts on private businesses that would no longer be allowed to enact vaccine requirements for their employees, including health clinics, hospitals and assisted-living facilities where such requirements can protect vulnerable patients.
Under a rule announced by President Joe Biden last year, health care providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding must require their workers to be vaccinated. That federal rule covers hospitals in Alaska, and would supersede any conflicting state legislation.
A Biden rule requiring private employers with 100 or more employees to vaccinate all workers or test them regularly for the virus was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.
“Any kind of mandate or requirement should be a rare thing,” Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl said during Senate debate on the bill. But a complete ban on vaccine mandates “is a bad idea,” he added.
Stopping medical facilities from requiring COVID-19 vaccines for their staff would put patients at risk and lead to potential staff shortages due to possible Coronavirus outbreaks among staff, Kiehl said.
“This bill is bad for business. This bill will endanger Alaskans’ lives. This bill will make it harder to end this pandemic,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Begich, of Anchorage, voted in favor of the bill after amending it in a Senate Health and Social Services Committee meeting earlier this month to include an intent clause stating that “every person should have the right to choose their own medical interventions.”
“This is about a person’s right to make their own medical intervention decisions, and the right to privacy,” Begich said during the committee meeting. Those arguments are often used to defend the right to abortion access — another embattled question of medical freedom.
Anchorage Sen. Gray-Jackson, the sole Democrat running for U.S. Senate, also voted in favor of the bill, citing her support for individuals’ right to make their own medical decisions.
“I thoroughly believe in autonomy, the right to choose what is right for oneself,” she said. “This bill also addresses discrimination based on vaccination status. For me discrimination in any form is unacceptable.”
The Alaska Legislature is following in the footsteps of several other Republican-controlled states that have passed laws making it harder to require vaccinations for employment or to access services.
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