A divided, tearful Colorado Senate shocked itself Friday afternoon when it narrowly handed a Republican invoice that seeks to require hospitals to permit extra sufferers to have guests throughout well being emergencies.
It’s a response to numerous tales of people that within the final two years have been rushed into emergency rooms whereas family members waited anxiously in parking heaps; who had nobody by their hospital bedside to advocate for his or her wants; who mentioned goodbye on FaceTime.
The invoice sponsor, Republican Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling, mentioned he entered Friday’s vote in need of the 18 he wanted to advance his invoice within the 35-member Senate, which Democrats management by a 20-15 margin. He’d gained over a number of Democrats, but additionally misplaced some from his personal aspect.
When Democratic Sens. Sonya Jaquez Lewis (Boulder County) and Chris Kolker (Centennial) flipped, Sonnenberg had his majority.
“We higher verify on hell,” Kolker mentioned. “It could be freezing over, as a result of I’m voting sure.”
The bill, SB22-53, creates baseline guidelines forcing hospitals and nursing properties to allow at the least one customer per affected person. It contains quite a lot of methods well being care services can restrict the unfold of illness on this or future well being emergencies — requiring guests be examined for illness, or wearing HAZMAT fits, for instance — however, with restricted exception, it doesn’t enable for visitation to be restricted altogether.
Sonnenberg mentioned it’s an important laws he’s launched in 16 years on the Capitol. He’s term-limited after this legislative session.
Lawmakers within the minority who query the general public well being response to COVID-19, as Sonnenberg did with this invoice, aren’t speculated to win.
Different, comparable pandemic-era laws pushed by Republicans has died on this Democrat-controlled statehouse. When SB22-53 debuted, it was routed to the Senate State, Veterans and Army Affairs Committee, which is properly often known as the “kill committee” — that’s, the place Republican payments go to die.
Sonnenberg received fortunate when the chair of the committee, Denver Democrat Julie Gonzales, empathized with him and voted to advance the invoice. Gonzales has misplaced a number of members of the family to COVID-19, and is aware of properly the ache of watching a liked one die via a video chat. She teared up as she forged the swing vote, and cried once more on the Senate ground Friday.
After surviving the “kill committee,” the invoice barely eked out of its subsequent committee, Appropriations, by a 4-3 vote that once more divided social gathering members.
