For the less lucky among us, losing a job will never be fun.
But how about being given compensation from your unemployment benefits if you’re sacked by your employer for not vaccinating your employees against a disease?
It’s a decidedly ironic proposal from Michigan’s Democratic Rep. Candice Miller.
Miller, a pediatrician and vocal critic of the government’s tight control of the nation’s health care system, has introduced H.R. 4015, the Conscience and Religious Freedom Act, a bill intended to prevent employers from denying employment and hiring based on their employees’ conscience objections to certain medical treatment and employment mandates.
Currently, Miller says that employers can force employees to buy expensive health insurance by denying them coverage for exemptions that will help them avoid vaccine mandates. “Medicaid is already suffering from doctor shortages due to inadequate funding. Forcing Americans to pay even more to fulfill new mandates is simply unacceptable,” Miller says.
“When it comes to Americans’ access to reliable and affordable medical care, there are simply too many roadblocks.”
And, she says, this isn’t just about fighting the oft-forgotten but deadly outbreak of mumps, which has hit this year.
“This debate has much broader implications than mumps – it involves the right of every worker to make his or her own medical decisions without interference from their employers.”
So if you’re considering filing a form to request the exemption, Michigan is one of the 25 states that offers protections to employees from being fired over vaccinations.
Uninsured vaccine refusal cases actually spiked in 2016. According to a study conducted by the Institute for Work and Health, some 5.7 million exemptions have been issued from federal and state vaccines since 1976, primarily since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was enacted in 2010.
Uninsured case of vaccine refusal saw increase in 2016, group says https://t.co/0JEcJN1AKj pic.twitter.com/us6IRMfGLT — PIX11 News (@PIX11News) August 1, 2017
The number of unvaccinated Americans went up from 10.5 percent in 2015 to 11.1 percent in 2016, a new report from the CDC revealed.
However, the vast majority of Americans in fact actually get the requisite doses of MMR vaccine to protect them from the potentially deadly disease.
However, vaccination refusal poses a risk to American children, as unintentional outbreaks have led to over 2,000 unvaccinated children in public schools according to a report by the CDC.
And people in some countries have to wait more than a year and pay fees before being vaccinated.
So if getting a job is on your agenda, and getting a job protects your health, for better or worse, better get your refusals in before it’s too late!