[PROVE] TEXAS ALERT: OPPOSE SB 892 and HB 1896

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IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: OPPOSE SB 892 and HB 1896

Bills create a Lifetime (birth to death) immunization registry for all

Texans and allow the State to receive and keep information without consent.

Dear Texas PROVE Members,

They are at it again. For ten years our money has been funneled to a

poorly functioning, mostly unwanted immunization registry. Now some

legislators have decided to give it a shot in the arm by turning it into a

lifetime tracking system for all Texans, plus giving the health department

permission to keep information without consent.

SB 892 has been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Health and Human

Services committee on Tuesday, 5-8-07. Please call and email or fax your

letters of opposition to SB 892 as well as HB 1896, which may be used in

its place, to members of the committee and your own State Senator. Tell

them, YOU DO NOT WANT YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION TAKEN WITHOUT CONSENT . THE

HEALTH DEPARTMENT SHOULD NOT RECEIVE INFORMATION WITHOUT A PATIENT'S

KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT. YOU DO NOT WANT THE REGISTRY EXPANDED. Then finish by

asking your State Representative to oppose HB 1896 if it comes up for a

vote before the House for the same reasons. Place your Senate and House

calls on Monday. Emails and faxes can be sent immediately.

SB 892 by Senator Zaffirini turns the current immunization registry into a

lifetime immunization and screening registry for everybody. This bill will

expand the registry to include early childhood screening records and any

other test the department considers necessary. The results will also be

included. This information is currently confidential and private. If this

bill passes it will flow just like immunization records without your

consent. You will only be able to refuse inclusion in the registry. Your

medical privacy will be further violated by another state information grab.

HB 1 896 by Representative Donna which does not contain screening

information, may be substituted for SB 892. The problems HB 1896 are

outlined below:

PROBLEM 1: This bill authorizes the department to retain individually

identifiable information about a person without consent. It only prohibits

the department from disclosing it to other users of the registry until

consent is obtained. Individually identifiable information will be in a

state database without your knowledge or permission.

PROBLEM 2: The bill claims to allow you to " opt-out " of the registry,

however there is nothing that prevents the state form retaining information

in another database. The bill directs the department to " exclude the

patient's immunization records from the registry and any other

registry-related department record that individually identifies the

patient " , not all department records.

PROBLEM 3: HB 1896 turns the current childhood im munization registry

(ImmTrac) into a lifetime registry, for all Texan's (young and old),

requiring the Department of State Health Services to keep immunization

information on a person until their death, unless the individual requests

in writing to have their records removed from the registry. With this

change, individually identifiable immunization information for a person 18

years of age or older will be submitted to the department, where it will be

kept with or without permission. Consent determines where the information

will be stored, not if.

PROBLEM 4: This bill requires the department by rule to develop guidelines

to determine the process by which consent is verified. This means that an

unelected bureaucrat, unaccountable to the people of Texas, heading a

department with a record of disregarding the law with respect to the use of

patient information will have total control over consent acquisition and

verification.

PROBLEM 5: The s ame unelected bureaucrat will be allowed to determine by

rule the information contained in the immunization record. All boundaries

for what can be taken from the medical record and stored have been removed.

PROBLEM 6: While persons who negligently release or disclose information,

fail to exclude information, or improperly use registry information are

considered to have committed an offense, there is no penalty. Therefore no

protection for individuals in the registry.

Those supporting this bill are currently claiming it is necessary to

protect public health. Yet the past has shown that immunization is at times

detrimental. Consider the problems caused by the swine flu vaccine, lyme

vaccine and the rotavirus vaccines. Problems which pale in comparison to

more than a billion dollars begrudgingly paid through the compensation

program to families of once healthy children, injured or killed in the name

of public health.

The only purpose for which such a database is necessary is to support

coercive measures against parents, individuals and physicians who may

disagree with one or more of the State's medical requirements or

recommendations. Recently parents sent a clear message to legislators by

demanding that a mandate for a vaccine with no track record, unknown

efficacy and unproven safety be reversed. Parents and individuals have

demanded the right to make informed health care decisions.

In order to preserve the small amount of trust that remains between public

health proponents and much of the public, PROVE believes that legislators

who feel we need a registry should simply allow physicians to send only

consented records to the department. This was the intent of the original

registry bill in 1997,and will eliminate time and money wasted on consent

verification while insuring voluntary inclusion. Forced inclusion allowing

for requested exclusion (opt-out) is bad policy. If this registry can't

operate on voluntary inclusion, respecting the doctor patient relationship

and medical privacy, then it shouldn't exist at all.

Please place your calls and send your letters.

Senate Health and Human Services Committee Members:

Senator Jane , chair (512) 463-0112

Senator Bob Deuell, v-chair (512) 463-0102

Senator Janek (512) 463-0117

Senator Nichols (512) 463-0103

Senator Dan (512) 463-0107

Senator Eliot Shapleigh (512) 463-0129

Senator Uresti (512) 463-0119

Senator Royce West (512) 463-0123

Senator Judith Zaffirini (512) 463-0121

Please be polite and give the aide your name and the city you are calling

from.

You may go to http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/Members.htm to find

your Senator and send emails from their individual websites. You will also

find fax numbers listed under office information. Include Lieutenant

Governor Dewhurst in communications.

Your State Representative can be located at

http://www.house.state.tx.us/resources/faq.htm#who_rep . Please be sure to

call and write them as well as Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick.

For those that wish to attend the Senate committee hearing it will be at

9:00am, Tuesday, May 8, 2007. It will be held in the Senate Chamber. You

may view the agenda at

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/schedules/html/C6102007050809001.

HTM .

Thank you for your help and continued support. Without you, the registry

outlined above would already be a reality.

Rex

Co-Founder PROVE

Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

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