Tennessee House approves bill barring TennCare providers from denying care over vaccine choice
Summary
The House passed legislation prohibiting TennCare-participating providers from refusing medical care solely because a patient is unvaccinated, after hours of debate over public health and patient choice.
The Tennessee House on Thursday approved Senate Bill 13 89 (substituted for House Bill 638), a bill that prevents health-care providers who accept TennCare from denying services to patients based solely on vaccine status.
Representative Charlie Carringer (Representative on the floor identified in the transcript as the introducer) moved the chamber to substitute and conform to Senate Bill 13 89 and asked for passage on third and final consideration. Representative Karringer, speaking as sponsor on the floor, said the measure was prompted by constituent complaints of “medical discrimination based on vaccine choice,” and described the bill as modeled on Texas House Bill 44 (2023).
The bill’s sponsor, Representative Karringer, said the intention is to protect TennCare patients and preserve the doctor-patient relationship. “This bill only has to do with TennCare patients,” Karringer said on the floor. “It’s only saying that physicians cannot deny care to you because you are unvaccinated for whatever reason.”
Opponents argued the bill could endanger public health and immunocompromised patients. Representative Vincent Mitchell said the state and local immunization rules had helped make Tennessee one of the top states for childhood vaccination historically and warned the measure would “create harm mostly to children.” Representative Salinas said the proposal would weaken herd immunity and put cancer patients, transplant recipients and other immunocompromised people at risk.
Lawmakers pressed the sponsor on implementation details. Representative Todd asked whether a clinic that set a policy barring unvaccinated patients from shared waiting areas — citing concerns about exposing newborns or immunocompromised patients — could lose TennCare payments. Karringer replied that the bill covers physicians who accept TennCare and that “there’s no way that you can really keep anybody from not getting exposed” in public clinical settings, and that the bill had been amended to exempt transplant and oncology patients and to reflect religious or moral belief considerations.
Several members of the House said they were troubled by the bill’s likely public-health effects. Salinas and Mitchell repeatedly urged caution, pointing to recent increases in measles and other vaccine-preventable illnesses. Karringer responded that the measure’s focus is limited to TennCare patients and framed it as a tool to restore trust and improve patient education by keeping lines of care open.
After debate and the adoption of a committee amendment, the House voted to pass the substituted Senate bill. The clerk announced the bill received the required majority and the chamber declared the bill passed on third and final consideration.
The bill now goes to the Senate (or, if the chamber had already substituted the Senate companion, proceeds per the chamber’s legislative process) for any further action or enrollment steps required by legislative rules.
