This bill is sponsored by Rep. Foxx, Virginia [R-NC-5]. It is attempting to coerce employees into employer disease prevention wellness programs. Section 3 (a) 2 refers to “workplace wellness programs and programs of health promotion or disease prevention offered by an employer.” The words disease prevention are concerning since not everyone agrees with the use of vaccines to prevent disease.
Section 2 (3) adds to this concern:
(3) in enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111–148), Congress intended that employers would be permitted to implement health promotion and prevention programs that provide incentives, rewards, rebates, surcharges, penalties, or other inducements related to wellness programs, including rewards of up to 50 percent off of insurance premiums for employees participating in programs designed to encourage healthier lifestyle choices;
As well as Section 3 (c);
(c) Rule of construction.—Nothing in subsection (a)(1)(A) shall be construed to prevent an employer that is offering a wellness program to an employee from requiring such employee, within 45 days from the date the employee first has an opportunity to earn a reward, to request a reasonable alternative standard (or waiver of the otherwise applicable standard). Nothing in subsection (a)(1)(A) shall be construed to prevent an employer from imposing a reasonable time period, based upon all the facts and circumstances, during which the employee must complete the reasonable alternative standard. Such a reasonable alternative standard (or waiver of the otherwise applicable standard) is provided for in section 2705(j) (3)(D) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300 gg–4(j)(3)(D)) (and any regulations promulgated with respect to such section by the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, or the Secretary of the Treasury).
Vaccines
The concern is this bill if passed into law would be applied to penalize employees who do not get regular vaccines imposed by an employee wellness plan. HR 1313 is indeed a threat to anyone employed by a company or large organization that offers a “wellness” program and partners with government and Pharma to “give carrots and apply sticks” to employees who do or do not go along with government endorsed “standard of care,” which includes receipt of federally recommended vaccines, whether the language in this bill says the word “vaccine” or not.
Genetic Privacy
On top of this, H.R. 1313, would remove the existing legal protections with respect to genetic testing. As a result, employers could require employees either to submit to genetic testing or to face penalties.
Currently, the 2008 legislation known as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA for short) prohibits such practices. HR 1313 states that GINA and other protections do not apply when genetic tests are part of a workplace wellness program.
“What this bill would do is completely take away the protections of existing laws,” said Jennifer Mathis, director of policy and legal advocacy at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, a civil rights group. In particular, privacy and other protections for genetic and health information in GINA and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act “would be pretty much eviscerated,” she said.
Enacting this bill could have an impact that reaches past so-called medical concerns and could have an impact in the area of eugenics.
Please go to the “National” Tab on NVIC Advocacy. Your Congressional Representative and Two U.S. Senators will be listed on the right-hand side of your personalized page. Click on their names for direct links to their contact information so you can voice your opposition to this bill.
Source(s):
healthimpactnews.com
change.org