Help Protect Medical Privacy In Idaho!

Idaho legislators have introduced a good bill that would allow parents to better safeguard their children’s private medical information.

HB 397 would protect parental rights by allowing parents to decide whether their children’s vaccination status is shared in Idaho’s tri-state government tracking database known as IRIS.

Currently, doctors, daycares, and schools enter your children’s vaccination status after every visit and annual enrollment. This means that parents must contact the Health Department EVERY TIME their child visits the doctor or has a school enrollment package filled out in order to have the data expunged from their system.

2024 Legislative Session bill number 397 will change IRIS into an OPT IN system from an opt out – so WE stay in control of our family’s private information.

Help us say YES to the right to protect individuals’ private and personal vaccination information today!

TAKE ACTION

Contact your State Representative and urge him or her to SUPPORT HB 397.

You can look up who represents you at https://legislature.idaho.gov/legislators/

(Click the Who’s My Legislator tab.)

Email the HOUSE HEALTH AND WELFARE COMMITTEE (emails below) and ask them to VOTE YES on House Bill 397.

Just copy and paste the email addresses below and put VOTE YES on House Bill 397 in the subject line. In the body of your email, say why you think parents should have the right to decide when and where their children’s private information is posted.

JVanderWoude@house.idaho.gov, SChew@house.idaho.gov, IRubel@house.idaho.gov, NRoberts@house.idaho.gov, MErickson@house.idaho.gov, MBlanksma@house.idaho.gov, MKingsley@house.idaho.gov, BMitchell@house.idaho.gov, CDixon@house.idaho.gov, JGallagher@house.idaho.gov, DHealey@house.idaho.gov, JRedman@house.idaho.gov, JoshWheeler@house.idaho.gov

Calls are more effective than emails and only take a few minutes. Below is a sample script. Use your own words when you call or email – a personal message is always more effective than a form message!

Sample script:

“Hi, my name is ____, and I am a constituent. I am calling to ask Representative ____ to SUPPORT HB 397, which would protect parental rights to privacy by changing Idaho’s tri-state government vaccine tracking database to an OPT-IN system from an opt-out system.

People and their children should not automatically have their personally identifiable information put into a database that is designed to track their vaccination status. Informed written consent with full disclosure should be required before any information is uploaded into this system.

Opt-out systems create significant privacy issues.

I am opposed to people and their children having their personally identifiable information put into a database that is designed to track their vaccination status. Any state vaccine information system should be strictly an opt-in system. Informed written consent with full disclosure should be required before any information is uploaded into this system.

Consent should always be obtained and never assumed.

We must protect the medical privacy of people in Idaho.

I urge Representative _____ to support HB 397, protecting medical privacy.”

Talking Points:

Keep your call or email short! Pick the 2 or 3 talking points most important to you and explain why this issue matters to you personally.

The IRIS database should be an opt-in system, not an opt-out system. All personal medical information should only be stored and shared with the express written permission of the patient or parent/guardian.

No one should have their private information put into a database without prior written consent.

Vaccine tracking systems should always be OPT-IN only. OPT-IN means that your vaccine information will not be shared if you do nothing. If you have not given consent, your vaccine status remains private between you and your healthcare provider, and your vaccine status is not tracked by a state government or released to other healthcare databases.

Supporters of vaccine tracking systems claim they are a way to protect patients by guaranteeing patients don’t receive multiple doses of the same vaccinations from different providers. According to the CDC’s own statements, though, it’s clear that a key purpose of these registries is to create pressure on people who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. CDC openly stated that vaccine registries are a tool to identify areas of “under vaccination” so they can be “addressed” and brought into “compliance.” https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6133a2.htm

Using Immunization Information Systems, in general, costs states millions of dollars. The money spent on expanding Idaho’s vaccine tracking system should be spent on measures that better address public health.

Read the bill here: