As June’s Pride Month comes to a close, Ohio Governor Mike Dewine signed an anti-LGBTQ bill into law allowing medical professionals to refuse to treat any patient over moral or religious beliefs. The religious objection provision did not come up in Congress for a stand-alone vote. Instead, the legislation was buried inside of the 2,438-page budget bill which passed last week.

Based on the wording of the law, Ohio health providers and insurance companies have “the freedom to decline to perform, participate in, or pay for any health care service which violates the practitioner’s, institution’s, or payer’s conscience as informed by the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.”

Women’s health advocates and the LGBTQ community are sounding the alarm. The sweepingly broad language opens the doors to discriminatory practices by health providers and insurance companies who fail to remember that the patient always comes first. 

The wording of the law goes way beyond issues of sexuality and gender. The law permits any healthcare provider to deny any medical services based on religious or moral objections.

The law is not limited to abortion services, contraceptive coverage, transgender care, or HIV medications. The legislation allows the individual provider to make a determinative choice of who they want to treat. 

The Federal EMTALA Act prohibits the US Health system from turning its backs on any patient in need of emergency care stating, “EMTALA requires Medicare-participating hospitals with emergency departments to screen and treat the emergency medical conditions of patients in a non-discriminatory manner to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay, insurance status, national origin, race, creed or color.

Ohio Governor Dewine’s bill provides a workaround for providers who wish to deny care to a patient based on moral or religious objections. The Ohio law states providers are “responsible for providing all appropriate health care services, other than the particular health care service that conflicts with the medical practitioner’s beliefs or convictions until another medical practitioner or facility is available.”

In Ohio, doctors and nurses, who refuse to treat a patient, must provide emergency care until they can transfer the patient to another provider or hospital willing to treat them.

Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation show that most Americans, regardless of their political party, do not support discriminatory healthcare policies. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents agree the US Health system should not refuse to treat patients based on their life choices. 

Governor DeWine and the Ohio legislature failed to recognize one of the most important healthcare provider aspects. 

Patient care is about the patient. Not the provider.

The Ohio law fails to acknowledge one of the most challenging aspects of medical care. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers work hard to avoid value judgments when providing care. We work to see all patients as worthy. We try to avoid bias. 

Healthcare workers treat patients. We do not judge who they are or what choices they made to need our service. Doctors and nurses do not treat the patients we like and turn away those who are not aligned with our morals and values. 

Good doctors and nurses do not pick and choose. We separate ourselves from value judgments to treat the patient in front of us. No matter who they are.

Medical care is about placing value on each person’s life. Although challenging, health providers try to avoid considering patient culpability when treating people. Our personal feelings must be checked at the door. 

We treat the person in front of us. 

Pulmonologists do not refuse to treat or blame a chain smoker for getting lung cancer. Trauma surgeons treat drunk driving victims and the perpetrators equally. We do not refuse care to gang members who get shot or deny Covid-19 treatments to those who refuse to wear masks. 

In Obstetrics and Gynecology, we provide care to pregnant women who use illegal drugs and prescribe PrEP therapy to those with multiple unprotected sexual partners. We don’t insert personal bias or value judgments into patient care. We try very hard to do exactly the opposite.

A health provider’s job is to counsel patients and empower them with knowledge. We discuss the health risks of their life choices. 

We do not deny care to those who live their lives in ways differently than we do, even if we find a patient’s life choices morally offensive. 

The post Ohio Sneaks LGBTQ Discrimination Law Into Budget Bill appeared first on Medika Life.

Together, they have earned an extra $10.7 billion over last year’s profits during (and largely because of) the pandemic — a stunning 56% increase. Despite this surge, we ranked Amazon and Walmart among the least generous of the 13 large retail and grocery companies studied in our report. The two companies could have quadrupled the extra COVID-19 compensation they gave to their workers through their last quarter and still earned more profit than last year.

Stock prices for Walmart have soared 36% since the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile, worker wages had grown only 6% by the end of 2020 even after last December’s bonuses were announced by the company. Walmart has (along with Amazon) redefined the term “corporate greed”, electing to drop sick and vulnerable employees along the way, viewing them as discarded lumps of diseased flesh not worthy of their billions. Damaged goods that can no longer serve their masters, through no fault of the employee.

If you think that description is a little harsh, it isn’t. It is reflective of a political mindset in America that rewards enslaving and exploiting the poor, often at the cost of their health. It is a mindset that persists independently of the color that occupies the White House, enshrined, entrenched capitalism at its worst. You cannot argue figures away and the graph above may as well be painted in the blood of the employees and families Walmart has destroyed in the last year.

According to figures from a recent study by Human Impact Partners, the extent of the impact of Walmart’s Sick Leave policy during the pandemic is this: at least 7,618 employee cases of COVID-19 and 133 deaths from COVID-19 could have been prevented. The effects on the broader public cannot be quantified. By forcing sick employees to return to work, Walmart has knowingly exposed its customers to potential infection from the coronavirus, contributing directly to the spread of the virus in the general population. It’s motivation? Unconscionable greed.

To make matters worse, intentional obstacles to accessing the paltry two days of paid sick leave make it even more difficult for sick Walmart staff to access the funds. Workers have reported barriers like retaliation and lack of communication around the policy in accessing even this meager amount of leave. According to a 2020 survey, 45% of Walmart associates reported they were still likely to come into work if they were sick. Employees reported fear of disciplinary action, loss of wages, and no knowledge of the 48-hour policy as reasons they would choose not to stay home while ill.

Offer your workers only TWO DAYS OF PAID SICK LEAVE and the following two scenarios unfold, pandemic or no pandemic. 

• Your employee is forced to return to work on the third day if they want to put food on the table for their families. If they’ve contracted a virus, this is the time they are at their most infectious, so Walmart is encouraging a policy that exposes the public to grave risk.
• Walmart turns off the pittance it drip-feeds its employees on day three of their illness if employers have even been able to access these funds in the first place. Staff who become seriously ill face a double whammy. Any potential savings, if they are fortunate, are quickly eroded by medical expenses, medication, and the related costs of illness, and their source of income is officially disconnected as per Walmart policy. No money, no food, no medicine. Tell me which part doesn’t upset you?

Add in the institutional obstacles to accessing these funds and staff are automatically coerced into staying at work, despite being ill. This promotes the spread of disease and places the life and health of the employee at risk.

Flawed Business or Flawed America

Take your pick, one or the other or both, the outcomes are the same. Current policies and permitted practices encourage racism, enforce poverty and deprive the poorest communities of the dignity of basic health and access to care. Ask yourself this.

Why is it that hard-working Americans are required to petition employees for BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS? BASIC HEALTH? BASIC DIGNITIES? Clearly, that little piece of paper referred to as a constitution appears to be fundamentally flawed and may require a redraft. The rights of all working Americans to the dignity of something as simple as paid sick leave, particularly at the time of a pandemic should be enshrined in law, vigorously enforced by legislation, and actively policed for transgressors. Fail to do this, to recognize basic human rights, and the subsequent costs of a failed system skyrocket. Particularly for healthcare.

Walmart isn’t just killing its staff and exposing the public to danger with its despicable profit-based policies, it’s contributing to the downfall of the American Healthcare system. Vote with your feet to register your outrage and do the right thing. Shop elsewhere until this greedy corporate entity decides to recognize its employees as human beings. 

Both Democrats and Republicans need to focus more on resolving basic inadequacies like these that affect large swathes of Americans. You cannot build new infrastructure on rotten foundations, President Biden, and your current building is teetering on the verge of collapse. You can read the full HIP report here: Walmart’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic: How lack of paid sick time prolongs the pandemic and increases mortality

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