>>You can opt out.<<
First, I homeschool.
Second, why should I have to fill out a form to ‘opt out’ of any decision about my child. Santorum had it right, why wasn’t it an ‘opt in’ instead?
Read upthread. It was opt out so that it could be covered.
Geez.
whoopie for you.
If you care about your kid, you fill out a form.
Perry already had answered this.
I see where you are coming from. I homeschooled all three of mine until they went off to college. I home schooled because I would not give my children to the government to raise. It is THEIR school when we do that, and I would not pass one lick of my rights to them.
However, why was it not just an opt in? Here is what I understand: Perry chose it as a mandatory, opt out vaccination because .. if a vaccine is considered mandatory, it is covered by insurance companies. An opt out made it available without the $150.00 to $160.00 cost per child. If a parent wanted it, it was covered by insurance. If not, they could opt out.
If the vaccine has been set up as a recommended or suggested preventative health practice, which would have been handled as an opt in, and the parents had WANTED to have their children receive the health vaccinations, the parents would have had to have paid the total cost of vaccine on their own without the help of the insurance company payment.
The opt out created a situation where the parents who didn't want the vaccine could opt out but those parents who did would have it covered by their health insurance.
Whether you like the vaccine or not, it is good to know why Perry set it up that way. He didn't want the parents to have to pay the high costs on their own which an "opt in" would have done.
netmilmom, YOU and YOUR kids aren’t the target of gardasil, nor am I and MY kids, nor are most FReepers. The vaccine is needed for sexually active adolescents. Most of them don’t have parents who are terribly involved in their lives.
Do you think for one minute that those parents would ‘go to the trouble’ of filling out an opt-in form? You and I would readily have opted out, no questions asked. But WE are involved in our kids’ lives.
Gardasil is not for, as Michelle Bachmann keeps saying, “innocent little girls.” It’s for sexually active 11-12+ year olds. Anyone who thinks that many innocent-looking middle school girls aren’t sexually active is keeping their head in the sand.