The Republican-led state House adopted a bill this week to forbid implicit bias training as a part of licensing requirements for health care professionals. The measure would also repeal existing bias training rules for state-licensed and registered health care workers.
Representative Matt Maddock (R-Milford), the bill sponsor, argued bias training is not about improving health care.
“The content of these programs is divisive, Marxist mental poison,” he said.
Representative Jamie Thompson (R-Brownstown, who is a licensed nurse, called the bill an insult to her profession.
“I practiced my entire career not looking at the color of somebody’s skin, not looking at who their sexual partner was, not looking at how old they were, not looking at their cultural background, but caring for them as a human being,” she said.
“This is not cutting red tape. This is cutting safeguards,” said Representative Kristian Grant (D-Grand Rapids). “This is removing essential education from the people we trust with our lives.”
Grant said anti-bias training is common in many professions and helps health care workers make good decisions, often in crisis situations.
“It teaches clinicians how to serve patients better across differences in age, ability, ethnicity, gender and health history,” she said. “It improves trust, communication and outcomes. To eliminate this training is to weaken Michigan’s healthcare system for everyone.”
The bill was adopted on a party-line vote and now goes to the state Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.
