Springfield, IL (WAND) – An Illinois House Democrat has filed a bill to tackle medical misinformation in Illinois. The legislation would give more authority to the state’s public health department and community leaders.
The plan calls for public health literacy grants to help community-based organizations, schools and libraries establish health literacy programs to teach residents how to evaluate medical claims, spot misinformation and access trusted care.
“I think they see this with anything that Secretary Kennedy does is a way to prove themselves to be anti-Trump, to virtue signal to their base,” said Rep. Bill Hauter (R-Morton). “That’s concerning to me that they may actually pass this.”
Hauter, an emergency medicine doctor by trade, said the state should have no role in deciding what medical information people should believe.
However, Vella said his bill would require IDPH to recruit and train local health professionals and community leaders to serve as trusted messengers for health information.
“It’s a lot easier to trust your teacher, your local health department person, your mayor and so forth as to what’s real and not real as opposed to just some guy on the internet,” Vella said.
The proposal also calls on the Illinois State Board of Education to work with the Department of Public Health to create guidance for schools to teach health literacy in comprehensive health courses. That instruction would include how to fact-check health information found online.
“We’re going to only teach your kids this perspective on this issue. It’s mandated by the state and anybody else we’re going to silence,” Hauter said. “I think that is an absolutely wrong way to go, and I don’t think it’s constitutional.”
House Bill 4596 also requires organizations that distribute or communicate health-related information to disclose funding sources and provide citations for their alleged facts. People could face civil or criminal penalties for spreading medical misinformation under this plan, as violations of the law would fall under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
The bill has not been assigned to a committee at this time. State representatives are scheduled to return to Springfield on Feb. 17.
