MI House Economic Competitiveness Cmte Oct 23, 2025: end implicit bias training for health licenses, Reduce Barber Ed, deregulate personnel agencies

MHF alerted the public to the immoral tyranny on healthcare when Implicit Bias Training began, and gave rejection tips one year later.

In 2024, we presented the MHF Defender Award to our second nominee, in part for vigorous opposition to IBT. 

Our hopes were raised when the initial 2025 budget cut IBT. Alas, that language was eliminated in final negotiations. 

So I'll admit it's VERY gratifying to see HB 4915, short and sweet, do the deed!

The trick, of course, will be passing it.

Michigan Advance includes excellent photos and links in its report.

https://michiganadvance.com/2025/10/27/michigan-house-committee-considers-ban-on-bias-training-requirements-for-health-professionals/

Michigan House committee considers ban on bias training requirements for health professionals

Kyle Davidson     October 27, 2025

Members of the Michigan House Economic Competitiveness Committee filed into their meeting room last Thursday to examine a widespread package of policies that proponents say would help cut down on red tape in various fields, including architecture, health, engineering, surveying, barbering and personnel.

While the bills discussed tweaking or eliminating licensure requirements for certain fields and relaxed ownership requirements for engineering, architecture and professional surveying firms, state Rep. Matt Maddock’s (R-Milford) House Bill 4915 stood out in seeking to bar the state from requiring health professionals to undergo implicit bias training as a condition for receiving or renewing their license.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 issued an executive directive, instructing the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to develop these requirements for health professionals following recommendations from the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities, which advised the state on how to address the higher rate of COVID-19 deaths among Black Michiganders.

The directive calls out the health disparities Black, Hispanic and Indigenous Americans experience compared to white and Asian Americans, as well as the disparities between women and men, noting that women are more likely to receive a delayed diagnosis of heart disease than men, as well as inferior treatment for heart attacks.

The directive acknowledges these disparities are numerous and complex, and can be tied to other determinants of health like education, employment and environmental factors, pointing to implicit bias – or thoughts and feelings that exist outside of conscious awareness – as another potential contributor to these disparities.

While the institution of these requirements was intended to help eliminate unconscious biases, misconceptions and stereotypes that may impact health professionals’ behavior, members of Do No Harm – a national organization which opposed diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in health care, as well as gender-affirming care for minors – argued the training requirements are divisive and encourage bias.

“Implicit bias trainings teach participants to focus on another person’s immutable characteristics in order to counter their own presumed unconscious feelings and use these observations to make decisions,” said Aida Cerundolo, an emergency medicine physician and senior fellow at Do No Harm. “In the medical context this means doctors must judge patients on their superficial attributes and make clinical decisions not solely on objective facts and data, but also on skin color and other immutable characteristics. This is called discrimination. It is dangerous, it is unethical and it is wrong.”

Kurt Miceli, the organization’s medical director, argued the training requirements also diverts time and resources away from continued medical education, suggesting health professionals’ time would be better spent reviewing medical literature on how to treat comorbid medical conditions.

Miceli further argued that the training requirement places an undue burden on health providers and will only frustrate Michigan’s shortage of health care providers.

Miceli’s testimony was greeted warmly by Republicans with state Rep. Pat Outman (R-Six Lakes) saying he’d had several health providers ask him to remove the implicit bias training requirements, and that other providers were walking away at the tail end of their career because of these additional licensing requirements.

According to the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, health professionals applying for a new license must complete two hours of implicit bias training, while applicants who are renewing must complete one hour of training for each year in their licensing or registration cycle.

Democratic members of the committee had questions about the bill, with the committee’s minority vice chair, Rep. Kristian Grant (D-Grand Rapids) asking Miceli whether he believed racial disparities were present in health care, and how they should be addressed.

“There are disparities in health care, and we can always continue to do better,” Miceli said. “And I think our emphasis would be better focused on, what can we do to address things like diabetes or hypertension or different sorts of illnesses that are impacting folks in negative ways? And if we direct our attention towards those, I think we’ll be doing a much better job in educating our workforce.”

Danielle Atkinson, the executive director of Mothering Justice, a multi-state organization focused on supporting mothers of color, submitted a card in opposition to the bill, but did not speak at Thursday’s hearing.

While Miceli pushed for a focus on clinical issues to resolve disparities in health care, Atkinson told the Michigan Advance Friday that health professionals need to look at this issue holistically, incorporating psychological and social perspectives.

“I think our physicians are well trained around the physiological aspects of health disparities, but what we are lacking is a complete whole body, whole mind and whole community approach, which includes understanding implicit bias,” Atkinson said.

While Miceli and Cerundolo questioned the validity of studies into implicit bias, Atkinson noted that in study after study, people of color are treated differently in medical settings.

“They’re prescribed differently. Their drug treatment is different. They are perceived to be more tolerant of pain, and they’re not believed as frequently as their white counterparts,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson also shared her own experience, noting that communicating with health care providers differs depending on whether she’s speaking with someone who shares her cultural background.

She also pointed to the disparity in maternal mortality rates, with Black women dying from maternal health complications at three times the rate of white women.

“We know that our bodies are not different. So there’s other things. There’s sociological factors at play that we have to be really curious about,” She said. “And when scientists are pointing to this implicit bias, we need to pay attention.”

A nominee for the 2025 MHF Defender award gave Barber education requirements some much-needed exposure.

Michigan Capitol Confidential reports on the latest bill action.

https://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/news/bill-would-cut-required-training-hours-for-barbers

Bill would cut required training hours for barbers

Michiganders seeking to cut hair must complete more training hours than police officers and EMTs

By Jamie A. Hope    |    December 1, 2025

Michigan residents who want to become barbers will face fewer regulatory barriers from the state should legislation introduced in Michigan become law.

House Bill 4927, introduced by Rep. Parker Fairbairn, R-Harbor Springs, would decrease the number of hours a person must spend as an apprentice before becoming a licensed barber. The requirement would drop from 1,800 hours to 1,500 hours.

“This bill is a small part of a larger effort to reign in the excessive rules, regulations and requirements that the state places on businesses and those that would seek to enter into Michigan-based professions,” Fairbairn wrote in a Nov. 6 press release.

The bill was reported to the Committee on Economic Competitiveness, which recommended that it pass.

The state requires about 300 more hours of training compared to most other states, according to Fairbairn. Reducing the requirement by 300 hours would bring Michigan in line with other states, he wrote.

Fairbairn did not respond to Michigan Capitol Confidential’s request for comment.

An expert on the state’s occupational licensing regime told CapCon that a 1,500-hour requirement is still too high and creates a barrier for Michiganders who want to pursue the work of barbering.

“There is no good reason that barbers in Michigan need 300 more training hours than cosmetologists — are men safer in shops or getting better haircuts?” said Jarrett Skorup, vice president of marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “Our laws are arbitrary and absurd and block working class people from jobs and I'm happy lawmakers are doing something about it.”

By comparison, police officers, who are trained to use lethal force, are required to complete just 615 hours of training that complies with the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards.

An emergency medical technician must obtain 194 hours of training to receive a state-issued license.

The Mackinac Center, a leading voice in calling for occupational licensing reform, has published a list of occupations and their licensing requirements.

CapCon emailed two professional organizations, the Michigan Barber School and the Michigan Association of Beauty Professionals, seeking comment. Neither replied.

The Michigan House passed HB 4915, which prohibits LARA from requiring implicit bias training - "Marxist Mental Poison" - in health care:

https://michiganadvance.com/briefs/michigan-house-approves-bill-blocking-implicit-bias-training-requirements-for-health-professionals/

Michigan House approves bill blocking implicit bias training requirements for health professionals
By Kyle Davidson - December 11, 2025

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.”