[Ohio-Talk] HB 448 Ohio House Insurance Committee

[Todd Elzey]

Good afternoon again.  I have just completed my fifteen individual emails
to members of the Ohio House Insurance Committee. In sending these email I
noticed one mistake in the original committee listing. The email listing
for Representative Patton was incorrect. Here is all of the information
from my original email with the corrected information for Representative
Patton. I hope you are hard at work sending out these important messages,
and please let me know if you have any questions.

We have often talked about how it takes all of us to get our legislation
passed and how sometimes we will ask you to take action rapidly to ensure
our legislation progresses throughout the legislature. Today is one of
those times.

Our prescription labeling bill is languishing in the House Insurance
Committee. Sponsor Testimony was originally scheduled for December 8, 2021,
but that hearing was canceled. The House Insurance Committee has met twice
since December 8, 2021, but our legislation has not been included on the
agenda. The 134th General Assembly ends on December 31, 2022. If we can't
get H.B. 448 through both the House and Senate by that date, we will have
to start all over again from the beginning. This means that we need to
convince the House Insurance Committee to take up H.B. 448 and pass it out
to the full house as quickly as possible.

So, I am writing to ask that every single member of the NFB of Ohio send an
email to all 15 members of the House Insurance Committee asking them to
take up H.B. 448 right away. Eric and I have drafted an email to use for
this campaign which I have included below.  While we encourage you to
include any personal stories that you might have regarding prescription
labeling issues, we ask that at a minimum you keep the Call to Action
paragraph (the final paragraph) intact so that the committee receives a
consistent message from us about what we are asking them to do.

Our goal is to drop at least 100 emails from 100 different individuals in
each Committee member's inbox by the end of this week. So we really need
every single member we can get to participate in this campaign. Chapter and
Division Presidents please reach out to your membership today to get them
to participate in this campaign. Remember, if the House Insurance Committee
does not take up this legislation in a timely manner, we may not be able to
get it through both houses before the end of the session and that means we
will have to start all over.

Immediately below this paragraph is a list of the 15 House insurance
Committee members with their email addresses. Below that list is the
suggested email language. Let's get these emails out as soon as possible so
we can get H.B. 448 passed. It would be great if you could either cc me at
toddelzey at gmail.com or at least drop me a message to let us know who has
sent out emails so that we know how many people have contacted the
committee regarding the issue.

House Insurance Committee:

Thomas E. Brinkman, Chair, rep27 at ohiohouse.gov
Brian E. Lampton, Vice-Chair, rep73 at ohiohouse.gov
Jessica E. Miranda, Ranking Member, rep28 at ohiohouse.gov
Kristin Boggs, rep18 at ohiohouse.gov
Rick Carfagna, rep68 at ohiohouse.gov
Jon Cross, rep83 at ohiohouse.gov
Bill Dean, rep74 at ohiohouse.gov
Mark Fraizer, rep71 at ohiohouse.gov
Dontavius L. Jarrells, rep25 at ohiohouse.gov
Kris Jordan, rep67 at ohiohouse.gov
Jeff LaRe, rep77 at ohiohouse.gov
Thomas F. Patton, rep07 at ohiohouse.gov <rep7 at ohiohouse.gov>
Jason Stephens, rep93 at ohiohouse.gov
Bride Rose Sweeney, rep14 at ohiohouse.gov
Terrence Upchurch, rep10 at ohiohouse.gov

Suggested email language:

SUBJECT:  HB 448 - Regards prescription drug readers for visually impaired
patients



Every day thousands of Ohioans who are blind struggle with meeting their
healthcare needs because they cannot read the instructions on their
prescription medications. This means that blind Ohioans run the risk of
harming their health or even killing themselves by taking medication
incorrectly, storing medication incorrectly, or even taking the wrong
medication.



Despite there being easy and inexpensive solutions to making prescription
labels 100% accessible to the blind, most Ohio pharmacies continue to
refuse to implement these solutions for their blind customers. At the
request of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) of Ohio,
Representative Richard Brown introduced H.B. 448. H.B. 448 would require
that all Ohio pharmacies offer accessible prescription labeling to their
blind customers. Passage of H.B. 448 would ensure that blind Ohioans have
safe and independent access to the prescription medications they need to
maintain good health.



H.B. 448 is currently assigned to the Ohio House Insurance Committee.
However, the Committee has yet to hear H.B. 448. H.B. 448 was scheduled for
Sponsorship testimony at the December 8, 2021, House Insurance Committee
meeting, but that hearing was canceled. The Committee has met twice since
December 8, 2021, but H.B. 448 has not been placed back on the agenda. H.B.
448 must pass this legislative session to protect the health, safety, and
lives of blind Ohioans. In fact, every day the Ohia legislature delays in
passing H.B. 448 endangers the lives of blind Ohioans. That is why I am
writing today to call on the House Insurance Committee to begin hearings on
H.B. 448 immediately and pass the bill out to the full house at the
Committee’s earliest opportunity.