HB286 Press Release

Pennsylvania Coalition for Informed Consent

Press Release

April 29, 2019

Citizens Call On Legislators to End Denial of Pediatric Health Care:

Our organization has heard from hundreds of parents across Pennsylvania whose children have been denied pediatric care because of their vaccination status.  A staggering number of these parents have children who were injured as the result of a vaccine and are now unable to access the care required to treat these injuries. Parents choose to delay or decline vaccines for many different reasons and Pennsylvania Code guarantees there right to do so.

The insurance industry has created a “pay-for-performance” system that awards bonuses to medical practices that have high percentages of fully vaccinated children. For example, two-year old children who receive 35 doses of 14 vaccines are included in the bonus calculation. Children who opt out of only one dose of one vaccine lower the practice’s score, jeopardizing the practice’s income.

Parents who choose not to vaccinate their newborn for the sexually transmitted disease Hepatitis B, or want to delay or decline Merck’s MMR vaccine, which is the subject of a federal fraud case due for falsification of efficacy data, are now routinely refused medical care.

True informed consent cannot exist where such obvious coercion and conflicts of interest are allowed.

It is unacceptable that our medical system permits and even encourages intimidation and denial of service by pediatric practices, especially when the Pennsylvania legislature has upheld the parental right to informed consent.  Additionally, the U.S. government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid over $4 billion for vaccine injuries and deaths, as federal legislation passed in 1986 protects vaccine manufacturers, doctors, and medical practices from liability for vaccine adverse reaction, even if they use duress to convince parents to allow an unwanted vaccine to be given.

We are calling on Pennsylvania legislators to end this growing trend of denying children access medical care by supporting HB286.