Democratic state lawmakers proposed a 11-bill package to expand vaccine information and access. More than 260 physicians signed a letter in support of the package.
The legislation follows decisions by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, to change federal vaccine policy.
State Representative Dr. Matt Longjohn (D-Portage) is one of the bills' sponsors.
“The chaos, confusion, and distrust that is being engineered by RFK and the folks at CDC who are fitting data around their conclusions, are causing vaccine skepticism to rise, vaccination rates to fall, risks of infection, illness, and death to increase,” Longjohn said.
The Empowering Parents and Protecting Communities bill package would allow the state to set its own immunization policies. Bills included in the package would require insurance companies in the state to provide vaccine coverage, clarify the process for vaccine waivers, and share anonymous immunization rates.
Doctor Heidi Jenney, a family physician in Taylor, said this package couldn’t come “at a more critical time.”
Last week, the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices moved to end a recommendation to vaccinate all newborns for hepatitis B, a disease that's highly contagious through bodily fluids and can cause severe liver damage. Additionally, there have been 47 reported outbreaks of measles in the country in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
“The U.S. is expected to lose its status over 25 years old now as being one of the countries that's contained measles,” Longjohn said.
The Trump administration has said its health policy changes are aimed at improving outcomes for patients and preventing chronic conditions.
In particular, the White House said, the move to rethink the nation's child vaccination schedule is to "align U.S. core childhood vaccine recommendations with best practices from peer, developed countries" — although experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics have said the shift is based in part on misinformation and lacks input from subject matter experts.
