Can children 5 years and older consent to vaccination under Obamacare if they can recite the alphabet? No, that's not true: Minors cannot consent to vaccination solely based on their ability to say their ABCs, regardless of the health care system. Vaccination consent typically requires informed consent from a legal guardian or parent, as children of that age are not legally considered competent to make medical decisions on their own.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram by paths2frdm2022 on March 19, 2024, under the caption "The more you know!!!!!" The post's graphic said:
OBAMACARE HAD HIDDEN AGENDAS ADDED.
- Children age 5 & up can consent to 💉 long as they can recite ABC's.
- Schools DO NOT HAVE TO REVEAL OF CHILD RECEIVED 💉 TO PARENTS
- SCHOOLS CAN REMOVE CHILDREN TO UNDISCLOSED LOCATION FOR 15 DAYS MIN WITHOUT ADVISING PARENT LOCATION
- SIGNING UNDER MARKETPLACE MAKES YOU CLASSIFIED AS CITIZEN
JUST TO NAME A FEW!!! WHY YOU THINK TRUMP ATTEMPTED TO BAN OBAMACARE!!!
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Thu Mar 21 16:36:39 2024 UTC)
While the social media post makes several claims, for this fact check, Lead Stories will only address the first one on the list: "Children age 5 & up can consent to 💉 [vaccination as] long as they can recite ABC's."
Affordable Care Act legal experts
Allison K. Hoffman, a law professor at the Penn Carey Law School at the University of Pennsylvania (archived here), told Lead Stories in a March 21, 2024, email that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, doesn't work that way. She said:
There is no such provision in the ACA about children consenting to vaccination, certainly not one based on the developmentally material yet irrelevant to consent skill of reciting the alphabet. Vaccination consent is regulated by the states, not the federal government.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) page titled "For Immunization Managers" (archived here) spells it out. It says:
State Vaccination Requirements
State laws establish vaccination requirements for school children. These laws often apply not only to children attending public schools but also to those attending private schools and day care facilities. States may also require immunization of healthcare workers and of patients/residents of healthcare facilities. ...
Vaccination Consent Forms
There is no Federal requirement for informed consent relating to immunization. For state and local regulations, check with your local or state health department.
In another March 21, 2024, email, Anne Marie Lofaso, a law professor at the West Virginia University College of Law (archived here), echoed Hoffman. She said:
In general, vaccines are regulated by state law, not federal law. The ACA is a federal law. I know of no state that allows minors to consent to vaccines at such an early age.
Kaiser Family Foundation
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation compiled "State Parental Consent Laws for COVID-19 Vaccination" (archived here). As of November 2021, no states allowed 5- to 14-year-olds to consent to vaccination. In the District of Columbia, the age was 11. Forty-one of the states put the vaccination consent age at 18 and in Nebraska, it was 19. The distilled national table is below:
(Source: Kaiser Family Foundation screenshot taken on Thu Mar 21 21:33:54 2024 UTC)
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about vaccines can be found here.
