Michigan House approves bill blocking implicit bias training requirements for health professionals

During Thursday’s session, members of the Republican-led Michigan House of Representatives advanced a bill that would bar the state from requiring health professionals to undergo implicit bias training when applying for or renewing their license.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford), a member of Michigan’s far right Freedom Caucus, passed in a 56-45 party line vote. The policy is unlikely to advance through the Democratic-led state Senate. 

While urging a yes vote on House Bill 4915, Maddock slammed the training programs – which were enacted through an executive directive following recommendations from the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities – as “divisive” and “marxist mental poison.”

He also argued that eliminating the requirements would save doctors time that they could use to treat patients. 

“None of these people in the health care industry are racist,” Maddock said. “They love people more than anyone else. Everyone knows that.”

State Rep. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) spoke out against the policy, noting that she had taken these trainings while renewing her own license as a physical therapist. 

She emphasized that state requirements require one hour of training per each year of licensure, while pointing to the ways implicit bias – thoughts and feelings that exist outside of conscious awareness – have impacted health outcomes in the state. 

“It is a fact that babies of color die at a rate of roughly three times the rate of their white counterparts,” Rogers said. “In my district, we had studies account for socioeconomic status, college education and all kinds of other factors, and it ultimately came down to race. Systemic racism is why babies of color are dying.”

Rep. Kristian Grant (D-Grand Rapids) said the bill would remove one of the only tools the state has to confront disparities within the state’s health system.

“Implicit bias is well documented, and it is a part of human cognition. It is backed by decades of data, experience and research,” Grant said. “We know that bias intensifies in fast moving environments like hospitals and clinics where providers must make rapid decisions under pressure. These unconscious assumptions shape diagnosis, diagnosis, communication and treatment with consequences that can be devastating.”

Black women are two to three times more likely to die due to childbirth as a result of the care – or lack thereof – they receive during pregnancy, Grant noted. 

“This is not cutting red tape,” Grant said. “This is cutting safeguards. This is removing essential education from the people we trust with our lives.”