Senate Voted to Repeal COVID-19 Healthcare Worker Vaccine Mandate

The Senate has approved a resolution that seeks to repeal the COVID-19 healthcare worker vaccine mandate. The House of Representatives has not made such a vote, meaning as of now the vaccine mandate stands.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) sponsored the resolution, which he first introduced in December 2021 under the Congressional Review Act.

Senators voted 49-44 to approve the GOP measure, with no Democrats voting to eliminate the mandate. Six Democratic senators missed the vote, allowing GOP senators to prevail in an evenly divided Senate.

Since CMS issued the interim final rule in November 2021 requiring healthcare workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, there has been significant legal pushback from Republican states and their lawmakers.

Despite this resistance, the Supreme Court ruled in January 2022 that all facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid must enforce the healthcare worker vaccine mandate and have their workers fully vaccinated by March 15.

In a press release, Sen. Marshall called the vaccine mandate a “slap in the face to the hard-working men and women who never took a day off on the frontline fight against COVID-19.” He also claimed that the mandate was not about public health or science and instead was a move from President Biden to “control every aspect of our lives.”

“Today is a huge victory for all the healthcare workers who ran to the sound of the COVID battle as Senate Republicans joined forces taking us one step closer to invalidating President Biden’s overreaching and harmful CMS vaccine mandate,” Marshall said. “These workers are the true heroes of the pandemic and deserve our best fight and utmost respect.”

Lawmakers have also expressed concern that the vaccine mandate would force workers to choose between their job and the vaccine, exacerbating the already dire staffing shortages facilities face.

In addition, health systems and hospitals risk losing Medicare and Medicaid funding if employees do not comply with the vaccine mandate.

“While I believe strongly in the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in helping to prevent hospitalizations and deaths, the federal government should not tie Medicare and Medicaid funding essential to the care of our seniors and lower-income Americans to vaccine mandates,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said in a statement.

“Maine’s already struggling hospitals and nursing homes would not survive without this funding.  That’s why I joined 48 other Senators in voting to reject the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers at facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.”

The resolution will continue to the House of Representatives, though experts do not expect it will pass. Additionally, the White House said in a statement that if Congress passed the resolution, Biden would veto the bill and continue to enforce the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.

“Vaccination requirements save lives. Vaccines are proven to reduce the risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19,” the White House wrote.

“The prevalence of the virus and its ever-evolving variants in healthcare settings continues to pose a significant risk of staff contracting and transmitting COVID-19, putting themselves and their patients at risk. Healthcare staff being unable to work because of illness or exposure to COVID-19 further strains the healthcare system and limits patient access to safe and essential care.”

While many hospitals and healthcare organizations, including the American Hospital Association (AHA), have supported the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, some hospitals shared the same sentiment as GOP lawmakers. In July 2021, hospital leaders voiced their concern about the mandate, fearing that it would worsen workforce staffing shortages.

Although AHA supported the mandate, the organization recently urged CMS to extend vaccine compliance dates for hospitals and health systems and avoid penalizing facilities amid staffing shortages and supply chain issues.