Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – On Wednesday, ten Republican state attorneys general filed suit to block the Biden administration’s mandate that U.S. healthcare workers receive vaccinations against coronavirus. The lawsuit claimed that it would worsen the staff shortages.

The President Joe Biden is a Democrat. He stated last Thursday that he will implement the mandate from Jan. 4.

Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Iowa filed jointly a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri.

“Placing this additional mandate on healthcare facilities and employees will exacerbate this problem and will likely lead some facilities – particularly those in underserved, rural areas – to close due to an inability to hire sufficient staff,” Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a statement.

Because there was no public comment before the release, the lawsuit claimed that the federal mandate violated the police power of the states and is illegal under the Administrative Procedures Act.

On Nov. 4, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the regulator for the two federal health programs, issued an interim final rule it said covers over 10 million people and applies to around 76,000 healthcare providers including hospitals, nursing homes, and dialysis centers.

A final interim rule can be published immediately and is subject to standard comments. The publication of an interim final rule is subject to a 60-day comment period.

Failure to meet the mandate may result in denied access to Medicare funds and Medicaid. Medicare is for people over 65 years old and disabled. Medicaid provides assistance for the needy.

Plaintiffs alleged that the CMS rule was too rigid and didn’t take into consideration local conditions and factors.

CMS claims that no widespread resignations have been reported from healthcare providers with mandated vaccines. 41% U.S. hospitals have this mandate. The mandate is applied across all settings of healthcare so staff are not able to leave one to take up jobs in the other.

The agency stated that “many employers have already mandated vaccination and nearly all of the local (and far-flung) healthcare providers require vaccinations under this rule,” when it introduced the rule.