Senate approves measure to end vaccine mandate for healthcare workers
The Senate voted Wednesday to nix the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers whose employers receive funding from Medicare and Medicaid.
The resolution passed 49 to 44, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats failing to provide enough votes to stop it. The measure, though, almost certainly won’t pass the Democratic-controlled House and will likely be vetoed by President Joe Biden.
The resolution was introduced by Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, who said on the floor Wednesday, “The Medicare and Medicaid vaccine mandate will impact every family, every person across this great nation.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mandate applies to roughly 10 million people at about 76,000 healthcare facilities participating in the program, including hospitals and long-term care facilities.
WHITE HOUSE OUTLINES ‘PREPAREDNESS’ APPROACH FOR ACCEPTING VIRUS AS PART OF LIFE
Under new guidance out in January following a Supreme Court decision that upheld the mandate, workers in 24 states have until March 15 to become fully vaccinated or face penalties such as termination. Another 25 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories already had vaccination timelines in place that required workers to have completed the regimen of shots by Feb. 28.
Healthcare companies have already braced themselves for the loss of employees who decline to get vaccinated despite the mandate. Many companies, such as Tenet Healthcare and AdventHealth, have already taken steps to walk back their own internal mandates under threat of an exacerbated staffing shortage. The Houston Methodist hospital network, meanwhile, was one of the nation’s first health systems to impose a coronavirus vaccine mandate in 2021 and famously fired more than 150 employees who refused vaccination.
“We already have a dire shortage of doctors, nurses, ultrasound techs, kitchen staff, custodians in all these hospitals and nursing homes,” Marshall said. “This mandate will result in more staffing shortages and firings.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Notably, West Virginia centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin voted in favor of upholding the CMS mandate even though he fought hard against a mandate that would apply to large private companies, which was struck down in the Supreme Court.
