There are tons of debates about vaccines, for better or worse, but often those discussions center around the morality, safety, and health implications of being anti-vaxx.
But as outbreaks of long-dormant diseases become the norm, there’s another side of the debate that one uncle is struggling with.
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If a child gets sick with a vaccine-preventable disease, who should be responsible for the bills?
This is particularly an issue in the U.S. where the privatized system can lead to massive bills. Even for those with insurance, the costs can often be more than a budget can handle.
Due to that, there has been a spike in people turning to crowdsourced donations to cover those costs.
In mid-2018, GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon said that 1 in 3 campaigns are raising money for medical bills.
Most of us are happy to donate a few bucks to help a sick kid, but what if the parents’ choices directly led to the illness?
On the Reddit forum r/AmItheAsshole, user throwaway-allday104 asked just that:
AITA for not wanting to donate money to my nephew’s medical cost fundraiser benefit thing or attend at all because he got measles and wasn’t vaccinated?
He explains that his sister is fundraising to cover the $8000 hospital bill.
Even though the uncle is well-off and could easily afford a large donation, he feels like she should have to pay it herself.
If the boy had contracted the disease even though he was vaccinated, he’d help out without question.
Why should our family have to pay when she made a bad choice?
The question isn’t about the health of the nephew — he’s home and recovering.
In fact, on top of helping his sister out with preparing meals and dog sitting during the boy’s hospital stay, the uncle says he’s also paid for a tutor to help his nephew catch up with school and paid for gas and groceries.
He simply wants his sister to deal with the financial consequences of her actions.
In fact, even though her son got seriously ill, she still refuses to consider vaccinating him against future illnesses.
The uncle says that if she agreed to that, and proved it was done, he’d pay the whole bill on the spot.
While some people accused him of not caring about his nephew — which he clearly does — others gave better advice.
Throughout the debate, it became clear that the lack of vaccinations are only part of the parenting issue. He admitted that his sister has a “mild” drug problem and often brings strange men home.
Plus, he learned that she plans to have the nephew attend a “pox party.”
So even though the boy just recovered from one preventable disease, she intends to purposely expose him to another. Sigh.
Meanwhile, the uncle is sticking to his guns about the money and has decided to contact social services for more advice.
