My Testimony to the Arizona House Of Representatives

On this Monday, March 23rd, I had an opportunity to testify to the Health and Human Services Committee for the Arizona House of Representatives. I was advocating for Senate Bill SB1052 which would allow assisted living homes to use mild hyperbaric oxygen chambers in assisted living homes.

This is the second time my friend Senator Wendy Rogers and I have tried to push this bill through the legislature. The first time it made it through the Senate Committee and passed the State Senate.

Then it died in the House of Representatives. That was in 2025.

Senator Rogers reintroduced the bill in 2026. Both times I testified in front of the Senate Committee and again it passed out of committee and then passed the full Senate.

This time the bill made it to the House Committee. That’s when I testified to push it through for a vote with the full House.

Here is my testimony to the House Committee:

I didn’t have enough time to make my full points. I wanted to talk about how there seems to be little to no innovation in assisted living. Everything is about compliance with regulations. Those regulations are not very effective in improving the health of the residents. Most of them are there to make sure the residents are safe.

And that the resident’s dignity is protected.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all about safety and dignity.  But if that is all you’re concerned about, then you don’t try new things. You don’t seek new ways to improve.

You just comply.

Hyperbaric oxygen is one of my ways to try new things, be innovative, and hopefully improve the health of my residents.

One of the Representatives on the House Committee, Representative Nick Kupper, gave me a bunch of softball questions to help my case. He explained that he had a special needs daughter that he put in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber:

The chamber helped her when no other medical treatment seemed to be working.

It was interesting to see how politics work. The committee was majority Republicans. After Representative Kupper asked me his questions, several Democrats wanted to ask me questions. They voted against the bill so I am assuming they would ask tougher questions.

As they started asking, the chairwoman cut them off and said it’s time for a vote. Personally I would have welcomed the questions and the chance to explain why hyperbaric could really help people in assisted living in a safe manner.

It was not to be.

As I walked back to my seat, a State Senator approached me and whispered:

“I don’t know why you’re here. This is a free country. We shouldn’t be telling you what you can put in your assisted living homes.”

That was certainly nice to hear.

If you live in Arizona, please call, write or email your representative and ask them to vote for SB1052. Hopefully one day this great therapy can help you or one of your relatives.