17 February 2025 POLITICS AND ADVOCACY CONTINUE YEAR ROUND. LSMS works outside the state legislative session to ensure physicians have a voice in interim committee meetings, the regulatory process and at a federal level. The following communications relate to issues and actions from earlier this year. In February, a coalition of physician groups led by LSMS reinforced the importance of the physician-patient relationship in the ongoing debates regarding vaccines.
COALITION OF STATE MEDICAL ASSOCIATIONS LSMS CONTINUES TO WORK WITH MEDICAL SOCIETIES FROM OTHER STATES TO URGE CONGRESS TO PROTECT MEDICAID FROM BUDGET CUTS.
May 21, 2025
An open letter to Louisiana’s patients regarding immunizations
The Honorable Mike Johnson
The Honorable Hakeem Jeffries
Speaker
Democratic Leader H-204 The Capitol
Immunizations should not be politicized. Healthcare should not be politicized. Public health should not be politicized. Your relationship with your physician should not be politicized.
H-232 The Capitol
U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515
U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable John Thune
The Honorable Charles E. Schumer
Majority Leader
Minority Leader
S-221
S-230
As a patient or caregiver in Louisiana, you have a right to have your questions regarding immunizations answered in a responsible, physician-led, knowledge-driven, evidence-based manner. The very best person to answer your questions is your physician. To that end, it is important for patients to have physicians and to be reassured that immunizations remain essential to supporting healthy communities. They are one of the most significant medical innovations of our time and have proven to be an invaluable thread in the fabric of our society. Traditional vaccinations have greatly impacted the spread of (and in some cases nearly eradicated): Polio, Smallpox, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, Rubella, Hib, Influenza, Measles, Pertussis, Pneumococcal Disease, Rotavirus, Varicella, Diphtheria and Mumps. In children, vaccinations help to prepare their immune system to recognize and respond to serious diseases. This helps them to stay healthy so they can thrive and develop into adulthood. Adults are also eligible for vaccines to include boosters for immunizations given during adolescence. In addition to childhood shots and/or boosters, adults are eligible to receive: Human Papillomavirus, Pneumonia, Shingles, and Meningitis. Physicians providing vaccinations to patients do respect a patient’s autonomy and do seek consent. To say otherwise is wrong. However, physicians also have a responsibility to provide patients with accurate information and the risks associated with refusing a vaccine – including illness, hospitalization and the very real prospect of harming vulnerable members of the community who rely on low to non-existent rates of illness to survive. Public health should serve as a partner to physicians by promoting evidence-based vaccine policy which is in the best interest of the patient. Here in Louisiana, physicians are today treating whooping cough (Pertussis), a disease that is highly contagious and vaccine preventable. In our neighboring state of Texas, physicians are treating an outbreak of Measles, a disease that had been declared eliminated in the US in 2000. As vaccination rates drop, outbreaks grow. There is no replacement for your physician in this conversation! Talk to your physician today. Louisiana State Medical Society Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians Louisiana Chapter – American Academy of Pediatrics Louisiana Chapter – American College of Emergency Physicians Louisiana Chapter – American College of Physicians Louisiana Chapter – American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Louisiana Society of Addiction Medicine MedicineLouisiana Radiological Society of Louisiana
U.S. Senate
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Speaker Johnson, Majority Leader Thune, Democratic Leader Jeffries and Leader Schumer,
On behalf of the undersigned State Medical Associations and the District of Columbia, representing hundreds of thousands of physicians and the 80 million Medicaid patients we serve, we strongly urge Congress to reject the $822 billion in Medicaid cuts included in the House Budget Reconciliation bill. The independent, non-partisan CBO estimates the proposal will result in the loss of coverage for at least 7.6 million Americans on Medicaid, including children, veterans, people with disabilities, seniors, pregnant women and low-income workers. This will lead to even more crowding of emergency departments, closures of rural hospitals and community physician practices, and widespread health and economic instability. Our patients’ health will suffer, the nation’s healthcare system will be in jeopardy, and health care costs will rise. Rural communities will be the hardest hit. This legislation represents a major reversal of long-standing financing agreements between states and the federal government. These massive cuts will devastate state budgets and states will be forced to raise taxes, cut provider payments, and cut Medicaid coverage for millions. As state medical associations, we are specifically concerned with the CBO estimate that shows the provider tax cuts and the state directed payment limit will result in nearly $200 billion in cuts to states, providers and our patients. Our specific comments are listed below: 1. Elimination of provider taxes on hospitals, managed care organizations, nursing homes and other providers – Section 44134. CBO Score: $30 billion cut. We strongly oppose this provision which would effectively eliminate long-standing provider taxes used in many states to support Medicaid. This change will have a catastrophic impact on state budgets, providers, and coverage for Medicaid enrollees and severely threaten the stability of Medicaid, especially in rural communities where hospitals and practices are already operating on thin margins. One-third of American’s rural hospitals are already at risk of closure.
These taxes have been authorized under federal law, approved by both Republican and Democratic administrations, and adopted by state legislatures for decades. Federal law requires states to establish
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