No jab no pay

The Herald reports:

Northland’s Dr Lance O’Sullivan has renewed a call for benefit cuts and higher taxes for parents who don’t vaccinate their children.
His comments come as the number of measles cases in New Zealand approaches 1000, with some medical experts now calling the outbreak an epidemic.
As of Friday there were 938 confirmed cases in New Zealand. Of those, 474 people had not been vaccinated. Another 22 were only partly vaccinated and 389 did not know if they were vaccinated.
Just 53 of the people who caught measles this year had been vaccinated.

O’Sullivan told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking he favoured a “firmer position” on vaccinating children in New Zealand.
He agreed with the “no jab no pay” concept rolled out in Australia, where benefits would be cut if parents did not vaccinate.
But he said this was not about welfare bashing – he also wanted to see a higher tax rate brought in for non-compliance. “You’ve got to hit people at both ends of the spectrum.”

Maybe you could turn this suggestion around. If you vaccinate your kids you get a tax cut, in recognition of the reduced cost on the public health budget.

And if you are on a benefit and you vaccinate, you move to a higher rate.