Bogus medical exemptions sought by anti-vaxxers may get revoked in Calif.

Enlarge / Dr. Robert Sears examines 2-mo-old twins. Sears is among the doctors who have been found to have issued fraudulent medical vaccination exemptions. (credit: Getty | Don Bartletti)

California state lawmakers this week introduced a bill that would grant the state's health department the power to approve all medical exemptions for childhood vaccinations, revoke fraudulent exemptions, and maintain a database of exemptions and the physicians who issue them.

The bill, SB 276, is designed to thwart the state's recent problem of "unethical" doctors exempting children from mandatory vaccinations based on dubious or outright bogus medical grounds—often for fees.

Medical exemptions are intended to only be given to children who have legitimate medical conditions that prevent them from receiving vaccines. That includes children who are taking immune-suppressing drugs, such as cancer and transplant patients, and those with life-threatening allergies to vaccines. Yet sham medical exemptions have been on the rise since 2015 when lawmakers banned exemptions based on personal beliefs (SB 277). Since then, the number of kindergarteners with medical exemptions in the state has tripled, bringing the kindergartener exemption rate to 0.7 percent.