The Kansas Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that limits the power of the state health secretary to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, although it was amended so it would be less burdensome for business.
The Senate voted 23-17 to pass the Constitutional Right to Health Freedom Act, which critics said would present a threat to public health.
The bill is the remnants from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when there was great angst over how the government responded to the spread of disease with mandates in an attempt to keep the disease in check.
Republican state Sen. Beverly Gossage, chair of the Senate health committee, said the bill is intended to put local elected officials in charge of public health decisions.
She said the bill directs unelected local and state health officials to focus their efforts on working as advisers and leave the policy decisions to elected leaders.
“Those health departments should do what we need them to, which is research, collect data, analyze, give recommendations – all the things that we want them to do as epidemiologists,” Gossage said.
“We want them to do what they need to do,” she said.
“But we want local elected officials to make those decisions based upon recommendations of our health board and the secretary,” she said.
Democratic opponents believed the bill’s limits on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment would put public health at risk.
“If this bill passes, KDHE would no longer be able to easily track or take active action to prevent highly infectious diseases,” said Democratic state Sen. Pat Pettey of Kansas City.
“We’re here to think about all of our citizens that we represent and want to provide for them the best information and the best access to healthy resources and not hamper their ability for them and their child to stay healthy,” Pettey said.
The bill restricts the power of the health secretary to only recommend ways to prevent the introduction and spread of infectious and contagious diseases.
Under the current law, the secretary could take action to prevent infectious diseases.
The bill allows the secretary to adopt policies necessary to carry out their recommendations but removes their ability to adopt rules and regulations that could be enforced through a court injunction.
It also removes the power of the secretary to order someone exposed to or capable of transmitting a contagious disease to seek treatment or be quarantined.
Also, the county or joint board of health or local health officer may only recommend against public gatherings when necessary for controlling the spread of disease.
The local health officer would be barred from issuing orders requiring an individual who is believed to have been exposed to an infectious disease to seek evaluation and treatment.
However, the local health officer could recommend treatment, isolation or quarantine.
The bill would give county commissions the authority to issue quarantine and isolation orders if there is an outbreak of a highly contagious, deadly disease.
The Senate restored the power of licensed social workers, teachers and school administrators to the list of people required to report an infectious disease to the county, a joint board of health or the local health officer.
It also removed a section of the bill that would have allowed someone to sue their employer if they were discharged because of either their vaccination status or not following an isolation or quarantine recommendation.
Democratic state Sen. Cindy Holscher argued against the bill.
She said it’s rooted in concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic when many believed the government overstepped its bounds with orders closing businesses, mask mandates or requiring vaccines.
“This bill is just completely unnecessary,” Holscher said. “That is no longer a reportable disease and there are no requirements or mandates.”
State fiscal analysts projected that the state could incur millions of dollars in expenses because of an increase in infectious or contagious diseases because of how the power of the health secretary would be limited.
The health department estimates that the cost for one measles outbreak would be about $7.1 million alone.
The health department reports that between 2001 and 2018, for 11 outbreaks, the median cost for a measles outbreak in the United States is estimated to be $152,308.
Last year, the Legislature approved a similar bill curbing the power of state and local health authorities to control the spread of contagious and infectious diseases.
The bill passed 22-18 in the Senate and 63-56 in the House, well short of the two-thirds votes needed to override a veto.
The Legislature did not attempt an override of the governor’s veto.
