Indiana citizens rise up to oppose state public health power-grab
More than a dozen people testified in opposition to Senate Bill 4, telling senators the Indiana Department of Health should not be given more power after its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic
The heads of two organizations — Hoosiers for Medical Liberty and Stand for Health Freedom — and several others testified in opposition to Indiana Senate Bill 4 last week, telling senators that they oppose the plan to take power away from county health departments and give the state more control over public health policy.
Their testimony followed the testimony of dozens of representatives of lobbying organizations, including the Indiana State Medical Association, the Indiana Rural Health Association, the Indiana School Boards Association, the Indiana Farm Bureau and the Association of Indiana Counties, all of whom supported the bill, which would impose numerous new requirements on county health departments and set up a cooperative program that would grant them millions of dollars in state funds if they agree to meet new requirements set by the state.
Senate Bill 4 is the bill that encompasses the recommendations of the Governor’s Public Health Commission, which was co-chaired by Judy Monroe, the current president of the CDC Foundation, the private arm of the CDC that is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente, Meta (Facebook) and many other multinational corporations.
The other co-chair was former Indiana state senator Luke Kenley.
Dr. Kristina Box, head of the Indiana Department of Health, who led the state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, was the commission’s secretary.
In announcing the formation of the commission in 2021, Governor Eric Holcomb said it would produce recommendations that would set public health policy in Indiana for the next 100 years.
It was presented as a commission that would seek recommendations from all corners of the state and address public health needs, especially in rural areas.
But Leah Wilson, head of the Indianapolis-based organization Stand for Health Freedom, testified on Feb. 1 that the commission is part of a “larger federal agenda” to bring all public health decisions under the control of Washington, D.C., and that at a recent hearing in Maryland, it was announced that Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Oklahoma, Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington are the first states to form public health commissions to accomplish this.
Also testifying was Amy Drake, a member of the county council in St. Joseph county in South Bend and a writer for The Federalist, who testified on her own behalf and on behalf of several members of the county councils and county commissions in St. Joseph County, Marshall County and Fountain County.
“We think that home rule must not be compromised with SB 4 and our fear is that this public health bill could take away control from local officials,” she told senators in her testimony.
Former Green Beret and congressional candidate Charles Bookwalter (who challenged U.S. Rep. Jim Baird in the Republican primary) also testified, telling senators:
“Before we go approving the state have more authority over health care or providing two times the funding for it, we want answers first into, ‘What was the cost of the state’s reaction to Covid?’… We’re pretending that there wasn’t a cost. There’s an assumption in this room right now that the Covid crisis would have been better if government had more power. Does anyone actually believe that now that we know vaccines don’t stop transmission, now that the CDC lied, that masks don’t work, now every day there are more and more cases of young people suddenly dying?”
He told senators that a better public health bill would give more independence to local health departments — not less — and that counties should be encouraged to implement different approaches in a pandemic.
“Because without the opportunity to dissent and be proven wrong, government mechanisms don’t self-correct, and I think a former Republican state senator knows that, which makes me think that this legislation is more of a cover-up, creating mechanisms so that you’ll never be caught harming the people again like you are right now.”
Other testimony of note is below:
Michelle Harter (attorney):
Dr. Lisa Robinson (independent family physician):
Ann Forti:
Margaret Menge (journalist):
The full hearing can be watched on the website of the Indiana General Assembly, here: https://iga.in.gov/information/archives/2023/video/committee_health_and_provider_services_3900/
Following the conclusion of public testimony, the members of the Senate Committee on Health & Provider Services voted 12-0 to pass the bill out of committee.
They are:
Three members have their names on the bill as authors: Sen. Ed Charbonneau, the chairman (R-Valparaiso), Sen. Jean Leising, (R-Oldenburg) and Sen. Chip Perfect, (R-Lawrenceburg).
The bill will be heard next by the Indiana Senate Committee on Appropriations, given that it would require additional spending of more than $300 million over two years, to flow from the state to those county health departments that comply with the new standards.
No hearing has yet been scheduled.
Read the Associated Press story about the bill here:
Read the Indy Star/USA Today Network story about the bill here, in which education reporter Arika Herron writes:
“a small group of Hoosiers used the hearing on Senate Bill 4 as a platform to spout misinformation about Covid-19, long-held grievances about Gov. Eric Holcomb’s handling of the pandemic and a lingering distrust in state government that has some questioning whether the effort to overhaul county health departments with an infusion of new state funding is actually a Trojan horse, designed to wrest control from local communities.”
Herron doesn’t identify what she considers to have been misinformation.
She notes that all of the members of the committee “had Holcomb’s back, for now.”
But what was most interesting was the headline: “Will Holcomb’s actions kill his public health overhaul?”
(the headline in the Indy Star was: “Will Eric Holcomb’s Covid-19 lockdown kill his public health overhaul?”)
We can only hope.
That would be called being held accountable by the citizens of the state.
Great job on your on your testimony!
They heard you Margaret. 💚💚💚