Freedom for Health Care Workers Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 497, introduced by my good friend from South Carolina, Mr. Duncan.

I strongly support this legislation, which would immediately repeal the Biden administration's vaccine mandates for all healthcare workers working in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services-regulated facilities.

CMS officials decided in November of 2021 to tell doctors, nurses, chefs, physical therapists, and anyone else working in the facility that sees Medicare and Medicaid patients that they needed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or lose their job.

This unprecedented, one-size-fits-all mandate came at a time in which healthcare workforce shortages are still challenging healthcare providers all over. This is the only such vaccine mandate in effect by CMS.

This overreaching decision requires affected facilities to be 100 percent compliant or risk significant civil monetary penalties, losing payment on new patients, or even the ability to bill Medicare or Medicaid at all. More consequentially, this misguided policy was issued at a time in which the United States is facing perhaps the worst healthcare workforce shortages in history. In the long-term care industry alone, there are 210,000 fewer jobs now than at the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020.

We have all read about and heard directly from constituents about the impact this policy had in someone's employment status. The forced choice between getting the jab or losing your job has undoubtedly contributed to an already depleted healthcare workforce nationally and will continue to threaten patient access to high-quality care.

Mr. Speaker, I oppose this mandate, and I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation.

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