by National Vaccine Information Center

National Vaccine Information Center·Wednesday, March 22, 2017

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Please immediately contact your Congressional Representative and 2 U.S. Senators to OPPOSE H.R 1313 Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act

This bill is sponsored by Rep. Foxx, Virginia [R-NC-5]. It is attempting to coerce employees into employer disease prevention wellness programs. Section 3 (a) 2 refers to “workplace wellness programs and programs of health promotion or disease prevention offered by an employer.” The words disease prevention are concerning since not everyone agrees with the use of vaccines to prevent disease.

Section 2 (3) adds to this concern:

(3) in enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111–148), Congress intended that employers would be permitted to implement health promotion and prevention programs that provide incentives, rewards, rebates, surcharges, penalties, or other inducements related to wellness programs, including rewards of up to 50 percent off of insurance premiums for employees participating in programs designed to encourage healthier lifestyle choices;

As well as Section 3 (c);

(c) Rule of construction.—Nothing in subsection (a)(1)(A) shall be construed to prevent an employer that is offering a wellness program to an employee from requiring such employee, within 45 days from the date the employee first has an opportunity to earn a reward, to request a reasonable alternative standard (or waiver of the otherwise applicable standard). Nothing in subsection (a)(1)(A) shall be construed to prevent an employer from imposing a reasonable time period, based upon all the facts and circumstances, during which the employee must complete the reasonable alternative standard. Such a reasonable alternative standard (or waiver of the otherwise applicable standard) is provided for in section 2705(j) (3)(D) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300 gg–4(j)(3)(D)) (and any regulations promulgated with respect to such section by the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, or the Secretary of the Treasury).

The concern is this bill if passed into law would be applied to penalize employees who do not get regular vaccines imposed by an employee wellness plan. HR 1313 is indeed a threat to anyone employed by a company or large organization that offers a “wellness” program and partners with government and Pharma to “give carrots and apply sticks” to employees who do or do not go along with government endorsed “standard of care,” which includes receipt of federally recommended vaccines, whether the language in this bill says the word “vaccine” or not.

Please go to the “National” Tab on NVIC Advocacy. Your Congressional Representative and Two U.S. Senators will be listed on the right hand side of your personalized page. Click on their names for direct links to their contact information so you can voice your opposition to this bill.

Sincerely,

NVIC Advocacy Team

National Vaccine Information Center and NVIC Advocacy Portal

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacy action alerts and supporting materials. We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in their original form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originators of this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately, register at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service by NVIC.

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