Australia to Stop Welfare Cash of Anti-Vaccine Parents

[JI7]

Source: bbc

The "no jab, no pay" policy may cost parents more than A$11,000 a year per child in lost benefit payments.

Families with children not immunised have been able to receive childcare cash if they have a philosophical or religious objection to vaccines.

Anti-vaccination campaigns have been gaining ground in some Western countries in recent years - coinciding with a resurgence in preventable childhood diseases like measles.

The campaigners say that some vaccines against deadly diseases are dangerous. An online petition against compulsory vaccinations - with more than 3,000 signatures over the last five days - states that Australian parents have the right to make "an uncoerced choice".


Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-32274107

[mpcamb]

1. Kinda like it...

As a reversal to "let's bend over backwards for the anti-science crowd" attitude of various legislatures.

[Owl]

2. Good.

[salib]

3. Sounds like Kansas and Missouri

Trying to pick on those morally inferior welfare recipients.

[JI7]

4. this is australia so i was thinking it might not be the same as the US

it might just be something that most families get there and part of an overall system to prevent so much poverty in the first place.

[salib]

27. Still sounds like what they are doing in Kansas and Missouri

Trying to dictate the lives of those who are "morally inferior" because they are on assistance.

I think the anti-vaxxers should be required to vaccinate. However, not JUST the one who are on assistance. It should not be related in any way.

[Humanist_Activist]

5. I find linking this to welfare abhorrent, instead they should have a fine that is tied...

to income, so its higher depending on how high your income is, that way everyone, not just the poor, are penalized for endangering public health.

In addition, to those who continue to violate compulsory vaccination, criminal prosecution and removing the children from a neglectful environment may be necessary.

[cstanleytech]

6. I have no problem with them linking it because

stupidity knows no boundary and the majority of the anti vaccine crowd are behaving like idiots.

[Humanist_Activist]

11. The problem is that they are disproportionately targeting the poor, who aren't even the problem...

in most cases, most people who willfully refuse to vaccinate their kids, in most first world countries, are middle class to upper middle class. Their kids will still be vectors for many easily preventable diseases. You don't have to be poor to be an idiot.

I don't know, it could be different in Australia, but here in the United States, most anti-vax people are pretty wealthy in relation to the rest of the population, and the state with the highest vaccination rates is also the poorest(Mississippi).

[cstanleytech]

13. Well the governments of the world need to do something and yeah in this case its going to suck for

poor but imo it sucks even more for the children who die and or maimed for life because some stupid (excuse the language) motherfucker doesnt want to vaccinated their own kid.

[Humanist_Activist]

15. But this does nothing to prevent that, as I said, most people who are anti-vax aren't on welfare...

nor rely on benefits from government.

[cstanleytech]

19. No they dont rely on benefits but there are other ways to address them to such as

banning them from using public transportation and or facilities.

[Humanist_Activist]

20. Neither of those are practical, you would require public transportation system to ID everyone...

using those systems, our Metro in my area have vending machines that accept cash, and security cannot check the IDs of everyone at every station, they don't have the manpower.

I guess you could key these system to require scans of your state issued ID to issue a pass, and have a database tied to that ID that states you refuse vaccines for either yourself or your children. But, again, this would disproportionately affect the poor like voter ID laws do.

[snooper2]

16. And how would you know the income levels of the anti-vax idiots?

They have a couple rich spokespeople--

Outside of that you have some data points or?

[Humanist_Activist]

18. OK, I was wrong, there's hardly any correlation between income levels and vaccination rates...

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/29/which-states-are-the-best-and-worst-at-vaccinating-their-kids/

Of course, this is in the United States, however, I will maintain that many lower income people would be "vaccine-hesitant" as that article states, or skip vaccinations because they still don't have health insurance, or aren't aware that vaccines are free in many cases because of Obamacare. Ideological anti-vaxxers seem to just cross all boundaries.

I still maintain that its unfair to target the poor in particular, we should have universal, proportional, fines that hurt the wallets of all idiots.

[CanSocDem]

9. "...penalized for endangering public health."

Where on earth will you start?





.

[Humanist_Activist]

10. I'm sorry, but willfully refusing to vaccininate your children, for non medical reasons...

to prevent both them and the people around them from contracting dangerous communicable diseases that are, in many cases, deadly or debilitating is neglect.

[wysi]

7. The article is slightly misleading...

... what is being blocked are Family Tax Benefit payments, which are made on the basis of the number of children you have (and your income level). It's sort of like a tax deduction for dependents, except that the money is paid into the recipients bank account on a biweekly basis.

[SkyDaddy7]

8. Thanks for the clarification!!

I totally agree with the policy!!

[Humanist_Activist]

12. So these payments are a benefit for everyone?

If so, I retract my objection.

[hughee99]

22. Even if they payments go out to everyone,

those at the lowest end of the economic spectrum are still least able to give them up. If they payments are proportional to income (wealthier families get larger payments) then that handles the scaling of the penalty for income, but if they're a flat fee (x amount per child) then it's still a proportionally larger burden on the poor.

[wysi]

23. For folks at the lowest end of the spectrum...

... these payments don't apply as they receive a different type of benefit (essentially welfare), and that is not being stopped.

I do take your point however that the "working poor" would be less able to deal with these payments being withheld.

[hughee99]

25. Ah, okay. I didn't understand how their social services worked, and with the article

equating this to welfare, I made some false assumptions.

[wysi]

26. Yes, the reporting is a bit sloppy...

... both Australia and New Zealand use a similar system of tax rebates paid biweekly to parents. Australia also pays a one-time "baby bonus" for each child born, which at one point was AUD$5000, but I think it's less now.

[wysi]

24. Yes, except that...

... once you reach a given (high) income level you are no longer eligible for the payments.

[KamaAina]

14. Extra butter on mine, please.

[hughee99]

17. If the govt believes the vaccinations are necessary they should make them MANDATORY, with ONLY a

medical exemption allowed. If they believe the parents should be free to choose, then the parents should be free to choose. This policy seems to say that you are free to choose, as long as you're wealthy enough to afford it.

[Humanist_Activist]

21. Exactly, its unfair, but given the state of Australia's government, not surprising...

proportional fines I can support, have everyone be penalized 5 to 10% of income if they refuse to vaccinate their kids, or have it as a progressive fine structure, where the richer you are, the more you have to pay, tie it to inflation or cost of living indexes, enough to make it hurt but not destroy someone's finances, regardless of income level.