Patient’s Rights Bill Unable To Make It Across Finish Line For 2nd Year In A Row

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The Tennessee Conservative [By Kelly M. Jackson] –

For the second year in a row, an important piece of medical freedom legislation failed to be passed into law by the Tennessee state legislature.

Last year, HB0377 died in the House Health Subcommittee. This despite the legislation having ample support from Tennesseans who actively communicated to the legislature and grassroots organizations that due to incidents that occurred in hospitals during Covid, in which there was no one there to advocate for their loved ones, they died alone with no one to speak for them. 

The bill’s intended purpose is to ensure that patients’ rights are adequately acknowledged in hospitals and health care facilities all across the state. This bill would guarantee patients would be allowed visits by family and others who are able to advocate for them in the event that they are unable to adequately communicate their wishes themselves. 

The rights outlined in HB0377 are based on the provisions of Tennessee Rule 1200-08-01-.12 which states that “each patient has, at a minimum, the right to privacy in treatment and personal care; the right to be free from mental and physical abuse; the right to refuse treatment; the right to refuse experimental treatment and drugs; the right to have access to a phone number to call if there are questions or complaints about care; the right to be involved in the decision-making of all aspects of their care; and the right to self-determination, which encompasses the right to make choices regarding life-sustaining treatment.”

The Tennessee Conservative spoke to the bill’s sponsor Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill-District 92) who indicated that they chose not to run the bill this session because he and the bills’ co-sponsor, Senator Mark Pody (R-District 17-Lebanon) had some additional work they wanted to do on it and will be presenting it yet again in the next legislative session in January of 2024. 

Representative Warner conveyed his disappointment at how difficult it always seems to be to get Republican bills through committees that are nearly entirely made up of a Republican supermajority. With that in mind he continued, “If the bills we propose are good conservative bills, then we should always be sending them through the committee, and if you want to vote them down, go ahead and do it on the house floor.” 

He further stated that the reason they would rather kill them in committee is because if the bills make it to the floor, they receive more attention and killing them would be more difficult as they would then find themselves having to explain to their constituents why a Republican would vote against clearly conservative pieces of legislation. 

We did inquire if maybe the lack of attention to the bill was due to Representative Warner’s call for Lt Governor Randy McNally to step down due to some inappropriate social media contact McNally had with a young gay man, named Finn McClure. 

Representative Warner said that was not the case with this particular bill,  but did say he had a piece of school safety legislation that passed through The House, but was told by a member of the State Senate, that due to his confrontation of Lt Governor McNally, that “they wouldn’t run it in the senate because of what I had done to McNally”. 

HB0377 will be presented next session, which will take place in January 2024, and hopefully with some luck and less interference from establishment Republicans, the third time will be the charm. We will keep readers informed of this important medical freedom legislation as developments occur. 

About the Author: Kelly Jackson is a recent escapee from corporate America, and a California refugee to Tennessee. Christ follower, Wife and Mom of three amazing teenagers. She has a BA in Comm from Point Loma Nazarene University, and has a background in law enforcement and human resources. Since the summer of 2020, she has spent any and all free time in the trenches with local grassroots orgs, including Mom’s for Liberty Williamson County and Tennessee Stands as a core member.  Outspoken advocate for parents rights, medical freedom, and individual liberty. Kelly can be reached at kelly@tennesseeconservativenews.com.