Disability advocates press committee to pass bill banning disability‑based health care discrimination
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Summary
Multiple disability organizations, patients and clinicians testified in favor of H1360/S869 to bar healthcare discrimination based on disability, prohibit quality-adjusted life measures that devalue disabled lives, and stop coercive DNR practices; witnesses cited pandemic-era crisis standards and ADA guidance.
People with disabilities, family members, clinicians and statewide advocacy organizations told the Joint Committee on Healthcare Financing that H1360/S869 is necessary to prevent discrimination in care decisions and to protect disabled patients from being deprioritized for life‑saving treatment.
Testimony described repeated incidents where disabled patients were refused treatment, pressured into do‑not‑resuscitate (DNR) orders, or assessed using measures that implicitly devalue disabled lives. "People with disabilities deserve to be treated equally, not less," said Samantha Fine of the Disability Policy Consortium, adding that the bill "bans metrics in the provision of health care that devalues disabled lives over nondisabled lives."
Multiple witnesses recounted individual cases. Holly Simeone described her adult daughter’s treatment during the COVID crisis standards of care and said triage labeling and the refusal to provide supplies and pain management led to preventable suffering. Don Summerfield told the committee he had knowledge of an instance during the pandemic where a person with an invisible disability was denied a ventilator; he urged a roll‑call vote. Jonathan Garner and Kyle Kennedy recounted being refused or shunted aside because of disability diagnoses.
Speakers referenced federal law and guidance: the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and an Attorney General clarifying order (September 2010) for Title II/III obligations and interpreter accommodations were cited as legal background supporting the bill’s protections. Witnesses also described the role of quality‑adjusted life year (QALY) or similar metrics as discriminatory and noted prior legislative compromise language with ICER to prohibit discriminatory metrics while allowing nondiscriminatory value assessments.
Disability organizations asked the committee to report H1360 and S869 favorably so the Legislature can adopt statutory protections that would make it unlawful to deny or deprioritize care on the basis of disability, to pressure patients into advance directives as a condition of care, or to use life‑valuation metrics that deprioritize disabled lives.
No formal committee vote took place during the hearing; the chairs invited additional written testimony and said staff would collect submitted materials for committee review.