Vaccine bill on rocky road ahead
The controversial vaccine bill that made its way out of the Senate with overwhelming support lost its bite in the House Committee on Health Care, which ultimately decided to leave intact a philosophical exemption for parents who choose not to vaccinate their children.
Under the Senate bill, which passed 25-4, Vermont parents would no longer be able to opt out of state-required vaccines based strictly on philosophical grounds. Current state law allows children who have not received their full range of vaccinations can to attend school if their lack of shots is based on a medical, religious or philosophical exemption.
In the House committee, the bill saw less support. Without enough votes to keep the language that would remove the philosophical exemption, the committee ultimately settled on a compromise where schools and child care facilities must make available the rates of vaccinated and unvaccinated children they have enrolled. The facilities would be required to break down the information by each vaccine.
Under the most recent version, which passed on a 6-4-1 vote, parents using the philosophical and religious exemptions would have to attest each year that they have reviewed and understand information from the Department of Health about the benefits of vaccines and the risks of not receiving them.
The bill would also appropriate $40,000 to the Department of Health to target areas of the state with low vaccination rates.
The committee rejected a proposal by the Shumlin administration that would have kept the philosophical exemption intact but required a doctor’s signature stating that he or she had informed the patient of the risks of not receiving vaccinations.
Two Republicans, a Democrat and one Progressive voted against the bill in the House Committee on Health Care.
The bill is now in the House Committee on Appropriations.
-Alan Panebaker
Once-controversial autism bill set to sail through House Health Care Committee
A bill that would require health insurance plans to cover diagnosis and treatment of autism for people up to age 21 appears to have broad support at least from the House Committee on Health Care, according to the committee’s chair Mike Fisher.
In 2010, the state Legislature passed a bill mandating private insurance and Medicaid coverage for autism spectrum disorders for children up to age 6. The private insurance coverage piece did not take effect until October 2011, and in January, Gov. Peter Shumlin proposed postponing the Medicaid coverage another year, citing a study that said expanded coverage would cost the state $10 million.
This session, the Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office took a second look at the costs of expanding Medicaid coverage and found the costs to the state would be nominal in large part. The only real increases being a few hundred thousand dollars in costs to the state employee health plan, which already anticipated implementing the autism mandate without age limitations.
While the contentious financial debate over costs to the state fizzled to almost nothing, the bill appears to have become somewhat of a non-controversial issue.
Health insurance companies, who had opposed the 2010 bill, still do not support the proposal, but in testimony, Susan Gretkowski, a lobbyist for MVP Healthcare said, “we’re not vehemently opposing it.”
~ Alan Panebaker
