Washington,
D.C.–Senator
Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, and
Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), Ranking Member of the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following joint statement
on the vaccine mandate issued by the Biden Administration for Medicare and
Medicaid providers:
“America’s
frontline health workers have done incredible, life-saving work throughout this
pandemic, but the difficulties and challenges of the last two years have taken
a toll. The Biden Administration’s sweeping vaccine mandate risks exacerbating
the staffing shortages and burnout health care providers are already facing.
“By
making federal funding contingent on a vaccine mandate, the Biden
Administration is signaling to health care providers who allow employees to
determine their vaccination status themselves that they are willing to prevent
them from treating Medicare and Medicaid patients altogether. And because the
Administration doesn’t actually know what proportion of health care workers are
currently unvaccinated, it cannot say for certain how many patients will be
impacted if unvaccinated workers leave their jobs in response.
“Ensuring workplace and patient safety is
critical, but so is making sure Medicare and Medicaid recipients have access to
the care they need. The last thing we should be doing right now is putting more
pressure on doctors, nurses, and health care administrators – especially when
the result will primarily hurt seniors and lower-income Americans.”