SB 526 Mandatory newborn nurse home visits

Personal Choice and Responsibility
An invasion of families by strangers that isn’t their primary care providers that can access all your medical information. The service is already available for those that need it, and those results aren’t showing any positive impact on school readiness. There is no negative consequences to decline, but it still requires an initial visit to offer two more visits. In this initial visit, will the family still be subject to evidence-based assessment of the physical, social and emotional factors affecting the family that is required by the program? This will increase the cost of insurance and social services for all taxpayers.

Fiscal Responsibility
The cost per family to do this is estimated at $700 per family. Requires health benefit plans to reimburse for the cost of universal newborn home visiting services. The will increase everybody’s healthcare premiums. OHA calculates the cost to be $1,643,642 for 2019-21 ($1,413,876 General Fund, $229,767 Federal Funds); and $2,109,781 for 2021-23 ($1,624,208 General Fund, $485,573 Federal Funds).  Amendment B removed the visit to all newborns, but LFC is still projecting the same costs.

Limited Government
Based on Duke University’s Family Connects program and a pilot in Lincoln County that provides between one and three nurse home visits to every family with a newborn beginning at about three weeks of age, regardless of income or demographic risk. Using a tested screening tool, a nurse measures newborn and maternal health and assesses strengths and needs to link the family to community resources. It’s a step toward universal mandatory visitations. The nurse is expected to be a jack-of-all-trades advising on: Child health; Child development and school readiness; Family economic self-sufficiency; Maternal health; Positive parenting; Reducing child mistreatment; Reducing juvenile delinquency; Reducing family violence; or Reducing crime. Includes an evidence-based assessment of the physical, social and emotional factors affecting the family.

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SB 526A – I STRONGLY OPPOSE

This bill authorizes the Oregon Health Authority the power to overreach into our families by strangers that isn’t their primary care providers that can access all our medical information. The service is already available for those that need it, and those results aren’t showing any positive impact on school readiness that is claimed to be the reason for this bill. There is no negative consequences to decline, but it still requires an initial visit to offer two more visits. In this initial visit, families may still be subject to evidence-based assessment of the physical, social and emotional factors affecting the family that is required by the program.

This will increase the cost of insurance and social services for all taxpayers. The cost per family to do this is estimated at $700 per family. Requires health benefit plans to reimburse for the cost of universal newborn home visiting services. This will increase everybody’s healthcare premiums.

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