Legislative Alert - HB 1921
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House Bill 1921 Scheduled for House Vote on Wednesday
House Bill 1921 by Representative Jaime Capelo has been scheduled
for a vote of the full House of Representatives on Wednesday, May 7.
What may seem innocuous on the surface is a wolf in sheep's
clothing. Now is the time to contact your Representative and ask
them to vote against this erosion of parental freedom and authority.
HB 1921, if passed, would gut parental rights, medical privacy, and
informed consent provisions in the current law by requiring that all
doctors and insurance companies release EVERY child's private
immunization record, WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT AND AGAINST A PARENT'S
WILL, to the Texas Department of Health (TDH) to be tagged and
tracked in a statewide immunization surveillance database.
The current vaccine registry law correctly requires a doctor and
insurance company to have expressed written consent before releasing
a child's record to the state Health Department or anybody else. HB
1921 removes that consent requirement and mandates that the doctor
and insurance company dump all minor children's records and their
parents' identifying information to TDH. Then the parent would have
to respond to the health department's calls, letters, or visits
trying to verify whether or not the parent wanted this, but they
still will keep all statistical information on the child regardless.
Additionally, because Federal Medical Privacy Regulations for HIPAA
permit public health disclosures without consent in the absence of a
stricter state law requiring consent for the release of records, the
language in HB 1921, if passed, would pave the way for intrusive
data grabs from other local, state, or federal vaccine tracking
systems. The threat that these registries pose is real: computerized
databases operated by the government for the purpose of tagging and
tracking every child have been and increasingly will be used to
punish citizens for disagreement and non-compliance with government
dictated health care or other policies.
SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS IN OPPOSITION TO HB 1921
The current vaccine registry law correctly requires my doctor and
insurance company to have my consent before releasing my child's
record to the Health Department or anybody else.
As the parent of MY child, it should be MY responsibility and MY
responsibility alone to determine who gets to see my child's medical
record.
I do not want to have my child's medical details released to persons
I do not know, for purposes I cannot predict, which may be contrary
to my child's best interests.
ACTION NEEDED:
Please take a moment to contact your member of the Texas House and
express your opposition to HB 1921. If you are unsure who your
State Representative is, he or she may be located by clicking http://thsc.c.tclk.net/maaa3ylaaXPcua3BfVsb/
Click here to read the text of HB 1921
http://thsc.c.tclk.net/maaa3ylaaXPb1a3BfVsb/
================================================== ==================
House Bill 1921 Scheduled for House Vote on Wednesday
House Bill 1921 by Representative Jaime Capelo has been scheduled
for a vote of the full House of Representatives on Wednesday, May 7.
What may seem innocuous on the surface is a wolf in sheep's
clothing. Now is the time to contact your Representative and ask
them to vote against this erosion of parental freedom and authority.
HB 1921, if passed, would gut parental rights, medical privacy, and
informed consent provisions in the current law by requiring that all
doctors and insurance companies release EVERY child's private
immunization record, WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT AND AGAINST A PARENT'S
WILL, to the Texas Department of Health (TDH) to be tagged and
tracked in a statewide immunization surveillance database.
The current vaccine registry law correctly requires a doctor and
insurance company to have expressed written consent before releasing
a child's record to the state Health Department or anybody else. HB
1921 removes that consent requirement and mandates that the doctor
and insurance company dump all minor children's records and their
parents' identifying information to TDH. Then the parent would have
to respond to the health department's calls, letters, or visits
trying to verify whether or not the parent wanted this, but they
still will keep all statistical information on the child regardless.
Additionally, because Federal Medical Privacy Regulations for HIPAA
permit public health disclosures without consent in the absence of a
stricter state law requiring consent for the release of records, the
language in HB 1921, if passed, would pave the way for intrusive
data grabs from other local, state, or federal vaccine tracking
systems. The threat that these registries pose is real: computerized
databases operated by the government for the purpose of tagging and
tracking every child have been and increasingly will be used to
punish citizens for disagreement and non-compliance with government
dictated health care or other policies.
SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS IN OPPOSITION TO HB 1921
The current vaccine registry law correctly requires my doctor and
insurance company to have my consent before releasing my child's
record to the Health Department or anybody else.
As the parent of MY child, it should be MY responsibility and MY
responsibility alone to determine who gets to see my child's medical
record.
I do not want to have my child's medical details released to persons
I do not know, for purposes I cannot predict, which may be contrary
to my child's best interests.
ACTION NEEDED:
Please take a moment to contact your member of the Texas House and
express your opposition to HB 1921. If you are unsure who your
State Representative is, he or she may be located by clicking http://thsc.c.tclk.net/maaa3ylaaXPcua3BfVsb/
Click here to read the text of HB 1921
http://thsc.c.tclk.net/maaa3ylaaXPb1a3BfVsb/
