House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

Trust is the invisible ingredient in a functioning health care relationship. The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the New England Journal of Medicine all argue that patients deserve open and honest communication.   Trust is central to quality patient care.   

  

That trust is at risk – in this commonwealth and around the country -- as politicians seek to undermine professional decision-making and insert their own biases.  

 

Legislation has sought to interfere with appropriate standards of care in areas such as abortion access and gender affirming care, but also in less obvious areas including treatment for Covid-19 and Lyme Disease. Not only do these proposals violate best practice, at times they force health care providers to choose between their duty to their patients and their compliance with state laws. 

 

The Patient Trust Act creates protections for providers and patients from government interference that undermines patient care. In short, doctors could not be required to lie to their patients, or  to perform unnecessary interventions. They’d be allowed to provide the care they think is best.  

 

The Patient Trust Act would prevent the commonwealth and all political subdivisions from: 
 

• requiring a health care practitioner to provide a patient with information that is not medically accurate and medically appropriate for the patient,  

• providing a medical service that is not evidence based and patient appropriate, or 

• prohibiting health care practitioners from sharing medically accurate information with their patients.   

 

We must protect patients by protecting their providers from invasive government laws and regulations that interfere with quality care. I ask that you join me in this important endeavor.