Kansas legislators renew COVID-inspired efforts to rewrite public health laws
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The Kansas Senate is once again trying to rewrite public health laws in reaction to handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A bill to strip health officers of their authority to issue orders passed last week, as did a a bill to guarantee that loved ones have visitation access to family members in a hospital, but neither had a veto-proof supermajority.
Backlash to the pandemic response led Republicans in November 2021 to initiate the state's first special session called by legislators, and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly signed their bill targeting employer vaccine mandates into law. Kelly said at the time that she signed the bill to "get it over with and move on."
But many Republicans didn't move on, promising to pursue more public health legislation. Their efforts floundered in the 2022 and 2023 sessions, but have been renewed in 2024.
"The farther we get from the COVID pandemic, the more we seem to be forgetting the lessons we must remember to prevent out of control mandates from happening in the future," said Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee. "The totalitarian whims of people like Dr. (Anthony) Fauci should never be allowed to have the force and effect of law or take precedence over the most basic of individual rights. That's exactly what happened in 2020 and 2021."
Quarantine order bill tells health officers to 'stay in your lane'
Senate Bill 391, dubbed the "Constitutional Right to Health Freedom Act," takes aim at the authority of public health officers to quarantine and isolate individuals who have been or may have been infected with a disease. It was introduced by Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson.
It passed the Senate 23-17 last week, leaving supporters short of the 27 votes needed for a potential veto override. The bill now heads to the House.
Sen. Beverly Gossage, R-Eudora and chair of the public health committee, lauded the work of local health officers and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment secretary. But she took issue with their authority to issue orders.
"They serve a very important role," Gossage said, but "somewhere along the line gave them the authority to make orders."
She said, "COVID brought to light who can place orders."
Under the bill, health officers could only make recommendations. The KDHE secretary would also lose the authority to enact rules and regulations about infectious or contagious diseases, and the agency would also lose the authority to apply for a court injunction to compel compliance. A criminal penalty would be removed for violations of current law on tuberculosis.
Gossage said the bill was amended due to concerns that no one would have emergency quarantine or isolation authority during infectious disease outbreaks.
"Of course someone should be able to make those orders," she said.
More: Anti-public health politics get tepid support from Kansas Republicans, but bill still passes
With the amendment, county commissioners could do so instead of the health officer. But they could not prohibit public gatherings.
"That's what this bill does," she said. "It just basically says stay in your lane; don't give orders. We want elected officials to give orders, but we want you (health officers) to do all the things that you do, like do your research, and give us some information and data, tell us what's going on. We really appreciate that."
Sen. Kristen O'Shea, R-Topeka, criticized the bill and urged legislators to think of children and the potential for diseases spreading in child care centers.
"This is creating stricter guidelines for animals than it is for people," she said. "We want to value human life more than the animals."
Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, pointed to KDHE projections that disease outbreaks would be larger and more expensive without the current public health authorities in state law.
In 2018, a measles outbreak at a Johnson County day care eventually spread to Miami and Linn counties, totaling 22 infected people and 198 contacts.
The KDHE predicted that had there been no isolation or quarantine measures in place, the outbreak would have grown to 396 cases and 3,564 contacts. The public health cost would have ballooned from about $420,000 to $7.6 million, according to the bill's fiscal note.
"This is an extreme bill that would be a very expensive, dangerous experiment to unleash on our population, especially our children," Holscher said.
Taxpayers would refund hospitals if new patient visitation rules cost federal funding
Senate Bill 352, dubbed the "John D. Springer Patient's Bill of Rights," was also introduced by Steffen. It would mandate that medical care facilities allow in-person visitation. Facilities could face legal liability for not allowing visitors.
"The intent of the bill is to prohibit placing medically unnecessary, unfounded and non-scientific policies ahead of the right of individuals, families who were kept from the bedside of dying patients and those who are so sick they couldn't advocate for themselves," Thompson said.
It passed the Senate 26-13 last week, leaving it one vote short of a supermajority. It also goes to the House for consideration.
"A vote against 352 was a vote against basic human rights, and we will be hearing that multiple times through the summer," Steffen said, in apparent reference to the beginning of primary election season.
Peggy Springer, of Macksville, is the widow of the bill's namesake.
"His name is John Springer," she said. "He was murdered Dec. 2, 2021. Isolated from his family, denied medication that would have helped, he was sent to another state against family wishes and given large amounts of morphine and other drugs."
She said had the bill been in place when her husband got sick, he would not have been alone without his wife there as a patient advocate.
Peggy Springer took issue with John Springer being treated with remdesivir. She said the doctor mocked the family's request for ivermectin, telling her, "Your husband is not a horse."
"Do not let his death be in vain," she said.
The Kansas Hospital Association told lawmakers that visitation polices are regulated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That includes requirements for infection control guidelines, which can change during disease outbreaks. The organization said it appreciates the intent, but worries about unintended consequences.
Likewise, the Kansas Medical Society said it is generally supportive of the patient rights in the bill, but raised concerns about the new civil cause of action encouraging more litigation when there are already established legal remedies for adverse patient outcomes.
O'Shea raised concerns that the bill could force hospitals to choose between no longer following CMS infection control requirements and potentially risk losing federal funding, or not following state law and opening themselves up to expensive lawsuits.
Because of that, she succeeded in amending the bill to create a fund where taxpayer money would reimburse medical facilities for any fees, penalties or lost funding due to complying with the state instead of the federal government.
Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas senators pass public health bills on quarantine, patient visits
