Indiana senator who authored bill to centralize public health admits he didn't watch any meetings of Governor's Public Health Commission
Indiana state Sen. Ed Charbonneau (R-Valparaiso) is the primary sponsor of the bill that will take power away from county health departments and centralize control over public health at the state level — a bill that reflects the recommendations of the Governor’s Public Health Commission, co-chaired by the CDC Foundation’s Judy Monroe.
Charbonneau is also the chairman of the Indiana Senate Committee on Health & Provider Services, which just passed the bill — Senate Bill 4 — out of committee, 12-0.
But at the Feb. 1 hearing on the bill, Charbonneau admitted that he did not watch any meetings of the Governor’s Public Health Commission.
His admission came as he questioned Brad Rogers, the president of the Elkhart County Commission, who’d just testified in opposition to the bill.
In his testimony, Rogers referred to a particular meeting of the Governor’s Public Health Commission where members had laughed about how they would force counties to enter into a cooperative agreement with the Indiana Department of Health, in order to get funding. (See story here)
Charbonneau asked Rogers after his testimony if he was satisfied with the way his county health department was operating, saying if the county doesn’t want to enter into an agreement with the state, they are free to remain autonomous.
“If you do that, you’re going to continue to get the same care the day after you said no as the day before you said no. Nothing is going to change,” he said.
Rogers began to say that it was clear from the Public Health Commission meetings that the intent was to force counties to give up their autonomy.
But Charbonneau interrupted him, saying: “We weren’t at any of the meetings.”
“Well, they’re on video, all you have to do is watch them,” said Rogers.
“Well, I didn’t. I wasn’t there,” said Charbonneau.
Ed Charbonneau of Valparaiso has served in the Indiana Senate since 2007.
He’s a former hospital executive: After retiring from a long career at U.S. Steel, where his last position was head of government affairs, he served as the president and CEO of Methodist Hospitals.
State senators in Indiana serve four-year terms. Charbonneau will be up for re-election in 2024.
His district includes four counties: Porter, Jasper, Pulaski and White.
The hints at coercion (or retribution) for counties which don't opt in should be concerning- and how that could be a subject for levity (per Brad Rogers' testimony) is disturbing. You'd think Charbonneau would have immediately said that he'd like to watch the video of the Public Health Commission meetings to see what Brad Rogers was worried about-- instead, he showed no interest. But his bill was voted out of committee, 12-0, so maybe he doesn't feel that he needs to try to understand the opposition from this witness. I'd characterize that attitude as narrow-minded.
How much money did the Feds promise/give the State(s) for increased central control of health? The thought is that State control is the price we uneducated provincials pay for more of the pie....and we will like it. See the video, the Governor's Health Commission will lovingly educate us to the benefits. Same model as the millions given to the State Universities to implement useless and in some cases lethal covid mitigations. Current Republican leadership never met a Federal dollar they wouldn't take.