There's a potential new health-care mandate developing in the state of California, where lawmakers want to crack down on parents who have concerns over the state-required vaccine injections for their children.
Unrelated to Obamacare, but instead coming from a state health-care push, the proposal, AB 2109 by Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, "seeks to rein in parents who object to mandatory vaccines for students," according to officials with the Pacific Justice Institute.
The legal team said the present law allows parents to opt their children out of mandatory shots by sending a letter to the school and stating their beliefs that provide a foundation for their objections.
"Assemblyman Pan's bill would require the creation of a new government form for those parents to complete, and would also require them to get a signature and information from a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician's assistant about vaccines and communicable diseases," the organization reported.
"The latter mandate would likely require parents to spend time and money in a doctor's office when they are not sick, just to get information they could have accessed online."
A health committee is scheduled to begin discussion of the proposal next week.
PJI said its attorneys have advised many parents over the years who, for a wide variety of religious and philosophical reasons, do not want their children injected with one or more of the mandatory vaccines.
"AB 2109 reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of both parents and the role of public health," said PJI staff attorney Matthew McReynolds.
"The parents who have concerns about vaccines are not dumb, and they should not be forced to pay for state-mandated information they could easily get elsewhere, at little or no cost. This is a classic big-government solution in search of a problem," he said.
"When government starts issuing healthcare mandates, watch your wallet," warned Brad Dacus, president of the institute. "This special-interest legislation creates a windfall for Big Healthcare at the expense of conscientious parents."
He said the trend of legislation that "pads the profits of pharmaceutical and healthcare giants at the expense of parents and taxpayers" is beginning to alarm.
Last year, PJI opposed legislation that now allows drug companies to give minors controversial injections like the HPV vaccine without telling their parents.
Once they convince kids they need the shots, HPV vaccine makers can then bill taxpayers through a federal program, officials said.