Latest news with #HB257
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Ohio bill aims to help residents pay off their medical debt
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A recently introduced Ohio bill is aiming to help residents pay off their medical debt. House Bill 257 would cap interest rates for medical debt at 3% per year and prohibit health care providers and third-party collectors from reporting medical debt to credit agencies. Introduced by Reps. Michele Grim (D-Toledo) and Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) last week, the bill would also prohibit wage garnishment for medical debt, meaning courts could not demand employers withhold a person's earnings and use that money to repay debt. 'Medical debt can happen to anyone,' Grim said at a May 6 news conference. 'No one chooses to get sick or injured, no one plans on a car accident, a cancer diagnosis or an unexpected hospital stay. Yet for too many Ohioans, this is exactly how medical debt begins. Across our state, families are being punished not for financial recklessness, but for needing health care.' Currently in Ohio, if a medical bill goes to collections, patients can face an interest rate of 8% or higher, according to Grim. While the legislation does not forgive medical debt, its sponsors claim it would help ensure patients are not trapped in a cycle of ever-growing debt. 'You're still responsible for the debt, but it won't ruin the rest of your life,' Schmidt said. 'It will give Ohioans added safeguards so they can continue to get well and live a life that gives them the opportunity to be healthy, both physically, mentally and economically.' About 9.1%, or 810,000, of adults in Ohio reported having medical debt in a given year from 2019 to 2021, according to the health research nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. The organization found those with medical debt often cut back on basic household necessities, drain their savings accounts, increase their credit card debt and take on extra jobs. 'You might have insurance, but there are unintended costs that go outside of insurance,' Schmidt said. 'This bill is common sense.' Rachel Doan, a Columbus area resident, shared her experience with medical debt at the news conference announcing the bill. In 2010, her then 7-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia. Fifteen years later, she said her family is still dealing with the medical debt of her son, who is now a 22-year-old student at Ohio State University. 'There are some bills that I know went to collections, which I know are on my credit report,' Doan said. 'Not for lack of me making monthly minimum payments — there is only so much money I can make and keep my family together. I would like to tell you that I am an exception; I am not.' HB 257 has been referred to the Health Committee where it awaits its first hearing. The bill has 26 cosponsors, including both Democrat and Republican lawmakers. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cameras could soon be allowed in Florida's special needs classrooms
A bill moving through the Florida State legislature would allow cameras to be installed in classrooms for special needs students. If passed, House Bill 257 would authorize video and audio monitoring in all self-contained classrooms that include children with disabilities - with parental permission. Action News Jax Shanila Kabir spoke to advocates who are 100% on board with HB 257. They said this change will make a huge difference in identifying and preventing child abuse in schools. 'Different situations are uncovered and a lot of the time it's because the incident happens on the bus, playground and even hallways where there are cameras. Yet, when the door closes in classrooms, there are no cameras,' said President Stacey Hoaglund with the Autism Society of Florida. Although school is where children are expected to be safe, surrounded by teachers and administrators certified in student safety, Hoaglund said schools can also be a place where vulnerable children are abused. 'These individuals that are doing this to children, they know there is a camera on buses but imagine being in a classroom where the door is closed. Maybe there are two adults in the room but nobody else except them will know what a child had to endure,' said Hoaglund. Read: St. Marys police investigating local daycare over child abuse allegations, unexplained injuries According to the Child Abuse Training and Technical Assistance Center, children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities are at a higher risk for sexual abuse - up to ten times the regular rate. Some perpetrators are teachers or mentors who are in a place of power. 'We had one as recent as yesterday on a school bus where the teacher's aide took the child with disabilities by the shoulders and was shaking them.' The bill's sponsor, Representative Chase Tramont, and several other lawmakers have already thrown their support behind this bill. Read: Jacksonville substitute teacher at Tiger Academy YMCA arrested, charged with child abuse House bill 257 pertains only to special needs classrooms. If passed, the bill states parents of children with disabilities can request monitoring their kids' classrooms and all footage would stay available up to three months later to be used as evidence in case harassment/sexual abuse allegations are made. President Stacey Hoaglund said she and the Autism Society are working hard with legislators to make sure this motion passes in 2025. Read: Florida bill would remove child labor regulations, hour restrictions for working teenagers [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘It's about segregation': Opponents of transgender housing bill make their case again
McKinsey Robertson hugs her daughter, Marcie Robertson, who testified against HB269, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Photo by Vanessa Hudson for Utah News Dispatch) Marcie Robertson told Utah lawmakers that she's been attacked and demonized relentlessly since being swept up in a furor over transgender student housing at the state universities. 'My life has been excruciating since this began to unfold, as I struggled to balance my academic workload, resident assistant responsibilities and participation in extracurricular activities,' Robertson said at Thursday's Senate Education Committee hearing, telling her story publicly for the first time and opposing a bill that would restrict which dorm rooms transgender students could live in. '(The) cherry on top of this fiasco is the proposed legislation that would see myself and all other trans students removed from our apartments and barred from rooming with others who share our gender identities,' she said. HB269, proposed by Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, has been framed by Republican lawmakers as a privacy bill that closes 'loopholes' in last year's HB257, the law that restricts people to only using bathrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth when in government buildings. The new bill would also require transgender students at public universities live in dorms corresponding with their sex designated at birth. But opponents of Gricius' bill, like Robertson, don't see it as a privacy matter. 'Where was that concern for privacy when I was doxxed? Where was that concern for privacy when I had to enlist the help of friends to walk me to and from class for fear of my own safety?' Robertson asked. 'The principle of equality before the law states that you ought not to curtail the rights of one to preserve the comfort of another.' At the presenters' table, Robertson was seated next to her former suitemate, Avery Saltzman, who testified in favor of the bill. Saltzman's mother complained to the university about her daughter's living situation, which included living with a transgender roommate, in a viral Facebook post. 'My university interviewed and hired someone of the opposite sex to live in my girls designated apartment without letting me or any of my roommates know about it,' Avery Saltzman said. 'It is disappointing and frightening how quickly our rights and safety were brushed aside.' Cheryl Saltzman, Avery Saltzman's mother, who also testified at the hearing, said what her daughter went through should have never happened in the first place. 'The clear and obvious boundaries of female space should never have been crossed, and I'm very sorry to those people who believe that their housing is being restricted or that they are being targeted or bullied,' she said. 'This is not my intention. It is only to restore a boundary that should never have been crossed.' But critics of the bill said the legislation restricts the freedom of transgender students. Zee Kilpack told the committee they were worried this would ban transgender students from living on campus at all. 'What we're looking at here is an example of early segregation,' Kilpack said. 'Legislation like this is similar to Jim Crow mindset: separation based on unsubstantiated fear when we can have conversations to find accommodations that work for everybody.' The bill's Senate sponsor, Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, said he appreciated everyone who had voiced their concerns over the bill. 'I do believe that this is the correct policy, with an understanding that there are many that disagree with me and listening does not necessarily mean that the other person does exactly what you want,' he said. 'I hope everyone knows that I am listening, in spite of disagreeing on the policy.' The bill is one step closer to becoming law after passing the House Tuesday, 59-13. HB269 passed out of the Senate Education Committee on Thursday in a 5-1 vote, with Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, dissenting. It's not clear yet when the Senate will vote on the bill. Riebe said HB269 is government overreach and doesn't give people who may want to have a different experience the option to live with someone of a different gender identity. 'It is a solution looking for a problem, and it's so restrictive that it doesn't give us an opportunity to be more compassionate to someone that we have not met,' she said. 'It doesn't give us an opportunity to maybe explore something that we've never explored before.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
