Texans for Vaccine Choice Works to Save Taxpayer Money!

Now more than ever, Texans are concerned about government accountability and efficiency. Voters want their elected officials to prioritize fiscal responsibility by eliminating wasteful spending, cutting unnecessary programs, and draining the bureaucratic class that limits both freedom and prosperity in the Lone Star State. 

To that end, TFVC’s Political Director Michelle Evans, testified in recent hearings in the Senate Finance Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Article II of the budget. In her testimony, she articulated the decades-long precedent for Texans to exempt themselves or their children from state’s vaccine recommendations. 

Unfortunately, the procedure for obtaining the exemption entails an extensive and costly process that stifles vaccine choice and wastes taxpayer dollars. Texans must submit a request on the DSHS website and await the printed affidavit’s arrival in the mail before having the form notarized and turned in.

“During fiscal year 2024, the agency mailed 353,083 affidavits for 152,963 individuals in Texas. The total costs [to the taxpayer in] fiscal year 2023 – a year in which less affidavits were processed – [was] over $630,000 annually.”

On top of those processing costs, Evans revealed that DSHS spends over $4 million per year promoting vaccinations across Texas. By essentially acting as an advertising agent for multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical conglomerates, the department is engaging in an unseemly public-private partnership. This corporate welfare system benefits vaccine manufacturers, who are immune from any form of liability, not hard-working taxpayers.

To address the wasteful affidavit process and reinforce parent’s rights in Texas, three bills filed in the Texas House would substantially revise the immunization exemption system. Each bill would not only simplify the affidavit form, but also require it to be accessible online and in public schools. It also demands the DSHS to maintain records of downloads while discarding sensitive, personal data and information such as zip codes and IP addresses.

The current vaccine exemption process is cumbersome, lengthy, inefficient, and costly to the Texas taxpayer. In essence, it serves as yet another obstacle to stop parents from calling the shots on their family’s medical decisions. Texans for Vaccine Choice advocates for an alternative that is fiscally responsible, privacy protective, and respectful of the people’s right to medical autonomy.

Evans concluded her testimony by fiercely advocating for allowing parents and college students to print their vaccine exemptions from the comfort of their own home, radically streamlining the procedure and expanding personal liberty. Finally, she implored the DSHS to let private pharmaceutical vaccine manufacturers advertise their liability-free products on their own dime, not at the taxpayers’ expense.