Lawmakers are seeking a compromise that would protect public health and possibly maintain a philosophical exemption for parents who choose not to have their children immunized.
In a conference committee this week, House and Senate members are working to reconcile one bill that would remove the exemption altogether (the Senate’s) and another that would leave the option intact (the House’s).
On Monday, members of the Senate, who voted overwhelmingly to remove the philosophical exemption, offered a compromise that would require parents who opt out of any immunizations to provide schools with a notarized statement that they have received “evidence-based” information from a health care provider about the dangers of not immunizing children.
The Senate proposal would also direct the state commissioner of health to disallow exemptions for certain vaccines if the immunization rates fall below thresholds set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Tuesday, House members offered a proposal with fewer hurdles. Both plans would require schools and health care facilities to disclose aggregated immunization rates.
A coalition of parents lobbied tirelessly this session to keep the exception. Vermont is one of 20 states that allows for a philosophical exemption in addition to religious and medical exemptions. According to state and federal health officials, the state also has one of the highest exemption rates in the country.
Many in the medical community, including Dr. Harry Chen, commissioner of the Department of Health, say leaving the exemption in place could lead to an increase Vermont’s already high rate of unvaccinated children.
Rep. George Till, an obstetrician who supports eliminating the exemption, said many physicians don’t like the Senate doctor sign-off requirement.
“It belittles what they’re already doing in the form of education,” he said.
Till said some pediatricians see the sign-off provision, a compromise the Shumlin administration recommended earlier in the session, as tacit approval of allowing unvaccinated children, who could potentially spread disease, to attend school.
The other issue, he said, is “if you sign a paper against medical advice, it changes the relationship between the doctor and the family.”
Jennifer Stella heads a coalition of parents who want to keep the exemption.
She said the Senate proposal puts too many restrictions on the philosophical opt-out.
“There’s a certain time where you have to examine is this really a right anymore is it a right with so many conditions on it that it’s no longer a right that can be exercised?” she said.
The conference committee meets again Wednesday at 11 a.m.
If the two houses don’t reach a compromise by the end of the session, the bill will die, and the philosophical exemption will remain.
