Immunization Registry Bill Needs 3 More Changes

[Guest guest]

IMMUNIZATION REGISTRY BILL UNFORTUNATELY ADVANCING IN SENATE

 

LETTERS NEEDED TO YOUR STATE SENATOR TO OPPOSE HB 1921 UNLESS AMENDED TO RESTORE PARENTAL AND MEDICAL PRIVACY RIGHTS GUARANTEED IN CURRENT LAW

 

While all the calls and letters to the House of Representatives unfortunately were not enough to kill the intrusive vaccine tracking bill HB 1921, they have made a significant impact in favor of parental rights on the final version passed out of the House this past week.

 

However, these changes were no where near enough to protect parental and medical privacy rights consistent with the current statute. We need to quickly urge the senate to oppose HB 1921 unless it is amended to correct the following 3 major problems:

 

PROBLEM 1: HB 1921 allows TDH to collect every child’s record in the state from the child’s doctor and insurance company without parental consent while the current law requires parental consent before TDH obtains any immunization information on the child. [see HB 1921 SECTION 4. amending subsection © of Section 161.008 of the Health and Safety Code]

 

PROBLEM 2: HB 1921 requires doctors and insurance companies to dump every child’s private immunization record to TDH without parental consent while current law requires consent before the child’s record is released. Current technology makes it simple for data to be sorted where only consented records are released to TDH. There is no reason for a data dump of everybody’s records. [see HB 1921 SECTION 2. amending subsections © and (d) of Sections161.007 of the Health and Safety Code]

 

PROBLEM 3: HB 1921 allows TDH to retain non-individually identifiable information about any child and his/her doctor even if TDH does not have consent for that child to be in the registry while current law only allows TDH to track information on children whose parents have consented to the registry. This could still lead to harassment and discrimination of communities of children unvaccinated with certain vaccines by choice. [see HB 1921 SECTION 2. amending subsections (b), © and (d) of Section161.007 of the Health and Safety Code, SECTION 3. amending Chapter 161 of the Health and Safety Code by adding Sections 161.0071 (b), and SECTION 4. amending subsection © of Section 161.008 of the Health and Safety Code]

 

ASAP PLEASE FAX, MAIL, or EMAIL your state senator a letter asking him/her to OPPOSE HB 1921 unless it is amended to address 3 basic remaining problems with the bill that gut parental and medical privacy rights guaranteed in current law and list the problems.

 

FEEL FREE TO USE OUR SAMPLE LETTER which articulates these arguments and lists the specific area of the bill with the problem. You can cut and paste it into your own note. It is posted at http://www.vaccineinfo.net/alerts/Senate_Letter_HB1921.shtml

 

1) Fax a Letter to your Senator through the Senate Fax Line at512) 463-0326 (or direct office faxes can be found on your Senator’s Web Site)2) Mail letter to your Senator (see sample letter for address) or3) Email Your Senator (see their web page for email instructions)

 

You can look up your senator and their contact information by linking to http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm. Then link to http://www.capitol.state.tx.us and click on Senate Members. Contact fax and email forms can be found on your Senator's web site by selecting the option to link to your Senator’s Web Site.

 

If the bill is set for a hearing and these problems are not corrected, please be ready to come to Austin and give personal testimony opposing it. We’ll keep you posted.

 

Please pass this on to family and friends who have been following this fight and care about parental and medical privacy rights. With just a couple of weeks left to session, we can do this so hang in there!

 

Thank you.

 

- Dawn Richardson PROVE(Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education) prove (email) http://vaccineinfo.net/ (web site)