After three tied votes and three days of hearings, the House Health & Welfare Committee has finally voted - unanimously - to send SB 1335, the IRIS immunization reminder bill, to the full House with amendments attached. "Committee, you did a wonderful job of working out this issue," said a jubilant Rep. Sharon Block, R-Twin Falls, the committee chairwoman, at the conclusion of the drawn-out hearing.

The bill earlier had passed the Senate on an overwhelming vote; it makes the state's Immunization Reminder and Information System an "opt-out" for parents at birth rather than an "opt-in" system, which backers, including the Idaho Medical Association and an array of health groups, said will make the system work better and cost less. Idaho ranks 50th for its child immunization rate among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, trailed only by Montana. In the end, the committee backed amendments to restore the word "voluntary" to the immunization registry law - the bill would have deleted the word, but the system still would have been voluntary - and require an array of additional notifications to parents that immunizations are voluntary. Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, offered a revised version of amendments offered earlier by former Congressman Bill Sali, deleting numerous references to sending parents a notice that immunization "may endanger the life or health" of their child.

Rep. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, said he's happy with the proposed amendments and hopeful they'll create a system that will work better - and may even show that more Idaho children are being immunized than is currently thought. "I don't think there's anything real sinister in the bill one way or the other," Thayn said after the long hearing. He said the objections were more about the "libertarian thing in Idaho, where we like to be left alone." He said, "We were just, you know how we are over here."

---

---