Image Above: Dr. Vickie Armstrong, Rep. Jen Dailey-Provost, medical student Braden Cunningham, and Rep. David Shallenberger

If asked to describe this year’s legislative session, I would liken it to a kid who hides behind a tree or bush to avoid being seen by someone. Health care advocates did a bit of duck and cover this session, as the attention of lawmakers was focused on issues (real or imagined) other than health care.

In a “knock on wood” moment, this session was actually not too bad, certainly not as bad or potentially bad as previous years, but there were still several key bills worth discussing.

The following bills passed:

• HB81 Fluoride Amendments: Utah is No. 1 again … for being the first state to ban fluoride in the water, and as our legislators take a victory lap, this isn’t the “win” they seem to think it is. We opposed this, but once we learned this was a leadership-supported bill, we knew the writing was on the wall. We’ll see the negative impacts of this change, particularly in children, with increased tooth decay and weakened enamel leading to lifelong dental issues. UAFP Rank: VERY BAD
• HB257 Pharmacy Benefit Amendments: For several years now, we have supported bills that would ensure pharmacy rebates and credits go directly toward patient costs or copays. While the copay accumulator bill didn’t pass, this bill requires pharmacies to count rebates directly against patient costs rather than keeping them as additional revenue. UAFP Rank: GOOD
• HB233 School Curriculum Amendments: Unfortunately, this is a bill that gave opponents of Planned Parenthood a win while depriving our schools of a solid and state-supported health curriculum. For years, Planned Parenthood has provided sound health education programs, particularly around maturation. They follow state‑mandated content rules to the letter. Now, schools are faced with creating their own programs, finding appropriate people to teach and covering those costs entirely. UAFP Rank: BAD
• HB402 Food Available at Schools: This bill requires healthier food to be provided in school lunches. While we fully support healthier food for our students, we were initially opposed to portions of the bill that mandated immediate adoption of these changes, putting schools and their already limited budgets at risk. Fortunately, changes were made that allowed for more time to comply and we switched to supporting the bill. UAFP Rank: GOOD

The following bills did not pass:

• HB245 Tobacco Amendments: After many years of proactive anti‑tobacco legislation, this one was a headscratcher. It would have allowed for telephone, mail or internet purchase of tobacco products. This would have opened up a whole new avenue for people, especially those underage, to purchase tobacco. Thankfully, it had resounding opposition and never made it out of Rules. UAFP Rank: VERY BAD
• HB288 Healthcare Malpractice Amendments: Luckily, this one never gained any traction. This bill proposed to double the amount of time a patient could sue for malpractice — in some cases allowing as much as eight years to elapse. The burden on providers would have been immense. This would have been a gold mine for medical malpractice insurance, as most claims would have required settlement, and insurance costs would have increased. UAFP Rank: VERY BAD
• HB400 Blood Transfusion Amendments: Referred to as the “bring your own blood” bill, this was one of the more unusual bills of the session. The first version of the bill was so broad that it literally would have allowed a patient to bring in a quart jar with their blood in it for the upcoming surgery. Fortunately, after much discussion with the sponsor, that was never the intent, and language was added to require adherence to all blood donation protocols, which meant the bill essentially was just affirming the right to autologous blood donation and donor blood donation. However, it took too long to get it right and it never made it across the finish line. UAFP Rank: NEUTRAL
• SB320 Physician Practice Amendments: This one was discussed in the CEO’s Message —the physician right of conscience bill that we worked to defeat early. Too broad, too far afield from the ethical practice of medicine, this was a good one to leave behind. UAFP Rank: VERY BAD

All in all, we had some wins and a few losses, but with other issues taking up the air in the room, health care survived to fight another day.

A huge thank you to all our members who participated in the Legislative Advocacy calls and helped determine our positions. This would not be possible without your expertise and willingness to get involved.

Click to see our UAFP positions on the bills we reviewed.