[Ohio-Talk] HB 448 Ohio House Insurance Committee

Fri Feb 11 18:10:31 UTC 2022

Hello Todd and everyone,

I have just completed my fifteen individual emails to members of the Ohio House Insurance Committee. 

Todd, thank you so much and your group for all you are doing to improve our lives! Greatly appreciated!!!

Take care and have a great day y'all.

Ali

-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Todd Elzey via Ohio-Talk
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2022 5:14 PM
To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Todd Elzey <toddelzey at gmail.com>
Subject: [Ohio-Talk] HB 448 Ohio House Insurance Committee

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.
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