Legislative Efforts
HCM influencing legislators and government policy
Mandate Legislative History.
Health Choice Maine (HCM) has been in the fight against mandates for a very long time. Here’s a timeline of legislative efforts we’ve worked for and against.
LD 51 IN PROGRESS
An Act to Restore Religious and Philosophical Exemptions to Immunization Requirements
HCM is supporting this bill, that would reinstate Religious and Philosophical exemptions to all students, and certain healthcare facilities.
LD 867 FAILED
An Act To Prohibit Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccinations for 5 Years To Allow for Safety Testing and Investigations into Reproductive Harm
HCM supported this bill that would have prevented State-issued mandates for the COVID vaccine for five years, to allow for scientific review of safety data.
Rule Change
DHHS Rule Change required the COVID-19 vaccine for all employees of certain healthcare facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes.
LD 96 FAILED
An Act To Create Fairness in the Treatment of Students by Retaining Students with Certain Vaccine Exemptions
HCM supported this bill that would have exempted all students already attending school as of Sept 1, 2021 from the removal of Religious or Philosophical exemptions. So current students would have been able to finish school, and the law would have only applied to new students entering the education system.
LD 156 FAILED
An Act To Promote School Attendance by Exempting Virtual Public Charter School and Private School Students from Immunization Requirements
HCM supported this bill that would have exempted children who attend virtual public charter schools and private schools from immunization requirements. It would also have required the Legislature to enact laws necessary to assure all school administrative units made suitable provisions for the education of every child residing in the school administrative unit.
LD 1082 FAILED
An Act To Improve Educational Opportunities by Exempting Children Who Attend Virtual Public Charter Schools from Immunization Requirements and Expanding Enrollment at Virtual Public Charter Schools
HCM supported this bill that would have increased enrollment at virtual public charter schools from 1,000 to 1,500 and exempted children attending virtual pubic charter schools from immunization requirements
Rule Change
DHHS Rule Change added flu shots to the required schedule for Healthcare Workers and gave itself the power to institute mass vaccination mandates during public health emergencies.
LD 2117 FAILED
An Act To Expand and Rename the Controlled Substances Prescription Monitoring Program
HCM opposed this bill that would have required a database be used by all pharmacists and physicians, to report all medications prescribed to someone. It would have allowed DHHS to collect your name, address, birthdate, prescriptions, and other private, sensitive details, that would have been accessible by a long list of employees. DHHS actually submitted testimony in support of this additional ability. The bill died upon conclusion of the 129th Legislature, Nov 16, 2020.
LD 2046 FAILED
An Act Regarding Immunizations
HCM was neutral on this bill, dubbed as the “fix it bill.” This bill was intended to correct oversights and mistakes that were made in the poorly written LD798 bill. This bill would have exempted students attending virtual public charter schools. The bill died in committee because of the pandemic shutdown, upon conclusion of the 129th Legislature, Nov 16, 2020.
LD 1001 FAILED
An Act To Ensure Parents’ Access to Their Minor and Adult Children with Special Needs
HCM supported this bill that would have ensured that even during a state of emergency, parents and guardians of children and persons with special needs, who are admitted into a hospital or care facility, could accompany their child. The bill died between houses, Jun 30, 2021.
LD 1616 FAILED
An Act To Establish the Vaccine Consumer Protection Program
HCM supported this consumer protection bill that would have created an oversight board, created a Maine-specific database for vaccine injury, required that there be qualified physicians in Maine able to assess, diagnose, and treat vaccine-related adverse events, and would have protected physicians who wrote medical exemptions.
LD 798 PASSED
An Act To Protect Maine Children and Students from Preventable Diseases by Repealing Certain Exemptions from the Laws Governing Immunization Requirements
Here’s where it really all began. In spite of a lot of propaganda and misunderstood beliefs, this bill removed all Religious and Philosophical exemptions for ALL K-12, Post-Secondary, and Healthcare Workers. HCM vigorously opposed this bill.
LD 51 Rally and Hearing Scheduled for April 3rd!
Now is the time! We’re calling everyone who believes in protecting individual rights to support LD 51 on April 3rd! New to the bill? Learn more about the LD 51 bill or get our Legislative…
Bill LD 51: Overview and Updates
UPDATE MARCH 24: The date for the committee hearing is Monday April 3rd at 10am. Health Choice Maine will be holding a rally at 8am at the State House in Augusta at 8am on April…