The court would have to overturn Jacobson v Massachusetts to say that government can’t pass a law mandating vaccinations, but they might rule that only state and not federal government can do so. I would also expect them to rule that people with a sincerely held religious beliefs against vaccination can’t be forced to get one.
Not going to happen.
Shouldn’t happen for the same reason we don’t outlaw abortion. People have right to autonomy over their body.
Mandatory vaccination (by the states) has already been ruled constitutional.
This is not relevant to my post.
I don’t think people should have 100% autonomy over their own bodies. Is that relevant?
I don’t either. However, my statement relies precisely not at all on Supreme Court precedents, and I frankly do not give a shit about the opinion’s of SCOTUS on medical ethics when saying what’s right and what a government will be willing to do in the first place.
You’re not wrong, but the issue here is a little different. In the case of abortion, you’re choosing to do something (i.e. abortion) that will cost the insurer less money. So it makes no real economic sense not to cover it. In this case, you’re choosing to do something that will likely cause the insurer more money (and definitely more Sklansky bucks). So, why shouldn’t you pay more for the health insurance (by not getting a subsidy) unless you get it.
Instead of mandating it for Medicare/Medicaid, it wouldn’t seem unreasonable to either reduce benefits or increase premiums for those who choose not to get it.
I get that we could make this argument about obesity and a bunch of other similar conditions that are often self-inflicted. However, in this case, there is a pretty straight line between cause and effect.
Another fly in the ointment is that the vaccines are only approved for emergency use. If they were fully FDA-approved, then something along the lines of the Riverman proposal would be more tenable.
I mean, we just disagree here.
You can do whatever the hell you want with your body right up until your idiotic choice kills other people.
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That’s fair, but just know that’s not our society’s position for numerous other situations, including vaccinations. You’d need a major shift in what’s defined as ok in mainstream of medical ethics for what you want to happen.
Yeah, public health seems like a spot where libertarianism as a philosophy really starts to break down.
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I think you could easily make a strong case that vaccinations should be required, but medical autonomy is the foundation of modern medical ethics. It’s not really a libertarianism thing… it’s actually in power ;)
OK but at what point are you interfering with my medical autonomy if you’re walking around me carrying a contagious disease?
Allowing that type of price discrimination could also be a pretty big step towards going back to individual underwriting and charging more for/excluding coverage from preexisting conditions.
At some point people just need to get comfortable with the existence of cases where the government just gets to tell you what to do.
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A fair question, but also not the question in hand. We forcibly quarantined people for things before covid, IIRC most commonly TB. However, those people provably have a disease.
Forced vaccination isn’t about carrying a disease though. It’s preventing them from carrying the disease.
I’m not aware of any western democracy forcing vaccinations on anyone. It’ll be interesting to see what’s done.
The most infuriating thing is there is a correlation between the people who won’t take basic precaution and those who won’t get vaccinated. It’s the same anti-science morons.
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As far as I know, you live in a state which got rid of the personal belief in demotion for mandatory vaccination after a measles outbreak.
Absolutely true in my experience…
although usually they’ve already had covid for some strange reason… at least among medical staff.
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I mean, you’re arguing against an abortion debate analogy by claiming it doesn’t kill anyone. They’re no sooner to grant that bodily autonomy is a valuable thing than you are to grant that killing a fetus is murder.
These don’t sound like apples to apples comparisons.
And we don’t allow autonomy over one’s body in all cases. Drug laws, for example. Seat belt laws, for another.