Will the new Health Care bill affect our vaccine choices?

[emma1325]

I know it's having a tough time getting through, and may end up being chopped to pieces, but can anyone offer some insight as to how it may affect parents' vaccine choices should it pass?

I don't like that there will be a fee charged to those who choose to remain uninsured. I'm also unclear on how the public option will be, or whether or not the remaining policies will change to exclude those who don't vaccinate.

My main concern is that the bill will make it easier for vaccines to be pushed on people, or for people who choose not to vaccinate, or selectively vaccine, to be discriminated against.

Thoughts?

[miriam]

AFAIK, the police powers or health, education and welfare still are the domain of the state governments, and as such, the state vaccine exemptions should stay put.

The problem comes in the ensuing years as the federal government creeps into the health field and tells all of the states what to do.

Case in point: education
The Department of Education was formed as the HEW in the early 1950s; HEW was created from an education department that kept records since 1867. In 1979, it splintered off into its own department. Today we see all of our public schools trying to comply with NCLB, a federal mandate. Think about it. It will not happen the minute the law passes, but there is certainly a history of the federal government creeping into places it never was before when it gets its chance.

JMHO.

[SunshineJ]

There was a post on here sometime ago linking to Dr. Tenpenney's facebook page where she had posted a letter from one of her alternative care provider friends. What this guy had found out was the at the time, the healthcare reform bill didn't specifically address vaccinations BUT if a provider didn't follow the government recommendations, then they would be fined basically to the point of bankruptcy. Now, I have NOT verified this on my own to say if it is accurate or not, though I can't see her risking her reputation to put up something that was patently false either - especially considering she's got enough of a target on her back where people are looking for reasons to discredit her as it is. However, I have not ascertained it's validity and do not want to come across as though I have. But it is a concern, and something that needs to be investigated I think. So to answer your question of if the policies will exclude those who don't vaccinate, I don't think so, but they may eliminate all possibility of a dr for those who choose not to vaccinate.

[Jadzia]

Originally Posted by emma1325

I'm also unclear on how the public option will be, or whether or not the remaining policies will change to exclude those who don't vaccinate.

There is no more public option in the current bill.

[emma1325]

Originally Posted by Jadzia

There is no more public option in the current bill.

Then I officially do not understand any of it now.

[Juvysen]

[Sweetiemommy]

No one can figure out what exactly is in the bill (multiple bills, actually) and that includes the people voting on it.

One thing I know is that two doctor's offices in my area who were previously okay with selective vaccination have developed policies to deny care to anyone who does not follow the full CDC recommendation for vaccination. We were issued letters from both practices. They both made it effective this year, so I am assuming it has something to do with changes to the health care system. I think we should expect a rocky road ahead of us. In the long run I think we can expect to be denied care from many types of health care practices.

[anj_rn]

Yes it will affect current medical providers, but probably not how you think. Like Medicaid, the new system will have performance measures that the providers will need to meet. One of these measures is vaccinations at 2 years of age (specifically that a child will have 4 DTap, 3 Hep B, 3 IPV, 1 Varicella, 1 MMR) some also add in the Rota, Hib, and PCV. Any provider accepting this insurance will be subject to audits to verify vaccination levels. Exemptions are given to patients with MEDICAL contraindications.

In Texas, the vaccines are provided for MCD, CHIPs, and uninsured children through the Vaccines for CHilrdren program. They come out and audit charts at minimum once a year. MCD has an incentive program for providers who have high vax numbers, but there is no penalty for those who do not.

It will not change a parents rights, but I would suspect that there will be providers who push vaccines on those patients for the incentives. In Texas, they can not audit the charts of private ins patients.