The state House Committee on Health Care and Wellness voted 10-5 Feb. 18 in favor of a bill that would make it more difficult for parents to make their kids exempt from getting vaccinated in Washington.

Currently, state law allows parents to not vaccinate their school-aged children for medical reasons, a personal objection or religious beliefs.

This bill would eliminate the “philosophical or personal objection” exemption option, but leave medical reasons and religious beliefs in place.

Rep. Chad Magendanz, R-Issaquah, is listed as a co-sponsor of the bill – HB 2009. However, when asked about his reasons for supporting it, he said he was considering taking himself off the sponsor list.

“My initial inclination was to support it because of the potential public health risk of unvaccinated children to the elderly, infants and immunocompromised, but I’m discovering there’s also considerable (well-documented) risk to our kids when they’re inoculated with live virus,” Magendanz said in an email.

Rep. June Robinson, D-Everett, is the primary sponsor of the bill and said at the committee meeting last Wednesday the bill is centered on public health.

“Ultimately it’s a bill about public’s health and the community’s health,” she said. “We all live in community and we need to think about how our actions affect those around us.”

The recent push for vaccination reform in several states is at least partially due to the recent outbreak of measles at Disneyland. That outbreak, which started in December, has spread to seven states, including two cases in Washington. There have been five cases in Washington so far this year, three of those were not related to the amusement park in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2013, measles cases were slightly below 200, nationwide, according to the CDC. Last year, the number of measles cases more than tripled from the previous year. So far, 154 cases of measles have been reported across 17 states and Washington, D.C. this year.

To keep diseases like measles from spreading, an immunization rate of at least 90 percent is recommended according to the Washington State Department of Health. This is referred to as “herd immunity.”

In the Covington, Maple Valley and Black Diamond area, seven schools have a vaccination rate of less than 90 percent. One of those schools is a private middle school and has a vaccination rate of 26.9 percent, according to Public Health of Seattle and King County. The exemption rate – either for medical, personal or religious reasons – for that school is 6.4 percent.

HB 2009 could move on to the House floor for a vote in the next couple weeks.

But, it will likely be met with some resistance because at least one co-sponsor is reconsidering his stance on the bill.

Magendanz said, “Even if I stay on the bill, I may introduce a floor amendment to address some of the public’s concerns.”