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House committee sends repeal of 'Yellow Dot' program to the floor
Summary
The House Health and Welfare Committee voted to send House Bill 80, which would repeal the state's Yellow Dot program chapter, to the full House with a do-pass recommendation after lawmakers debated whether the program had been used by first responders.
The House Health and Welfare Committee voted to send House Bill 80 to the full House with a do-pass recommendation after members said the state’s Yellow Dot program had seen little use.
Representative Heather Scott, R., District 2, told the committee that House Bill 80 would repeal the statute establishing the Yellow Dot program. "This was an unnecessary government initiative to distribute kits to citizens in order to collect information on their medical information to try to help with first responders," Scott said, adding later that the program "never really got funded, there was no tracking, it pretty much failed."
The bill’s sponsor said the statutory chapter totals four pages and about "10 sections of code" that the measure would remove. "I can go through the program if you'd like but it's pretty self explanatory, 4 full pages of language that we want to get rid of," she said.
The bill prompted questions from lawmakers about whether first responders still use the Yellow Dot materials. "They are not using the yellow dot, is that correct?" asked Representative Healy. Scott replied, "not that I am aware of," saying the program appeared to have been used intermittently at fairs and events but had not been adopted widely by emergency personnel.
Representative Wheeler asked whether Scott had seen successful equivalents in other states or other technologies serving the same purpose. Scott replied she was not aware of other state programs and had not researched alternatives extensively, adding that many people now use medical alert bracelets or other digital tools: "Everything's digital these days anyway."
Representative McCann said he would support the motion and noted he had distributed Yellow Dot materials in the past: "I do know what the program was intended to do and I appreciate that it perhaps did not work out, but I do think the intention was good."
Representative Healy moved to send House Bill 80 to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. The committee approved the motion on a voice vote; the chair recorded his vote as "aye" and the motion carried.
The committee did not record a roll-call tally in the transcript.
