Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Legislators in no rush to reconvene

Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin issued a letter to Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke on Friday calling on him to reconvene the Legislature to address the issue of health care providers mandating COVID-19 vaccines for employees.

Bedke told the Idaho Capital Sun on Friday afternoon that he and Senate leadership plan to do more research before deciding whether to call the Legislature back into session.

But he seemed lukewarm to the idea, based on existing vaccine exemptions and the Republican Party’s goal of limiting regulation on private business.

“We’ll take a look at this,” he said of McGeachin’s request.

“We’re going to do research. We’re going to be deliberate,” he said. “This is not something that we’re going to do tomorrow morning, frankly.”

McGeachin issued her request less than a day after Saint Alphonsus Health System, St. Luke’s Health System and Primary Health Medical Group, announced they would require all staff to be vaccinated by September.

Kootenai Health officials told the Coeur d'Alene Press they are encouraging but not requiring staff vaccines.

To meet the vaccination deadlines set by their organizations, those workers would need to start the vaccination process anywhere from late July to mid-September, depending on their employer’s rule and which vaccine they choose.

“This has left numerous employees with these major health care companies with little recourse for not wanting to take the emergency use authorized vaccine,” McGeachin wrote.

Idaho is an “at will” employment state, Bedke noted. That means the employer or the employee may terminate their work relationship at any time, for almost any reason.

Health care workers have long been required to be immunized against influenza, hepatitis and other infectious diseases, he said, adding that nobody wants to send family members or friends into a hospital and “have them come back with some kind of virus.”

The Senate would have to return to Boise to vote on a new law, too, Bedke noted. And he’s not getting the impression that the Senate wants to rush into this request, he said.

“First stop is with the Senate. And the sign I’m getting is that they’re going to go very slow on this,” he said.

“There’s been over 300 million doses given with minimal problems, and couple that with the fact that Idaho is all about reducing regulations and staying out of the relationship between employer and employees,” he said.

“A tightly held tenet of the Republican Party is to stay out of the employer-employee relationship,” he said.

McGeachin announced in June that she is running for governor in 2022, in part, she said, because of how Little has managed the pandemic in the Gem State.

In several social media posts, McGeachin has said she would not support things like vaccination passports or vaccine mandates. Instead, she said, Idahoans should be able to make their own health care decisions.

Bedke announced in May that he is running for lieutenant governor.