But we ran into a more serious case of this late last year during one of our child-birthing classes, when the typically amiable group session turned into a heated debate over vaccines. My wife just shook her head, wondering at our capacity to even debate this issue. Expectant mothers where she came from would jump at the chance for such simple health care benefits we often take for granted here.

But I had no idea the vaccination backlash ran so deep in our culture. Trade journal Pediatrics published a paper this week that reveals parents are delaying or skipping vaccines altogether for their kids. Roughly one in 10 parents shrugged off the CDC's recommended vaccination schedule, while 2 percent of parents nationwide refused them outright.

And even those rational parents who adhere to the feds' program often do so under duress. About a quarter of them insisted that delaying vaccines avoided side effects, while nearly 30 percent of them thought allowing parents to skip vaccines let them avoid "vaccines that aren't really necessary."

I honestly believe these are – for the most part – normal people who don't necessarily question 9/11, our president's citizenship or the moon landing. So this persistent distrust of the medical establishment is troubling, to say the least. And it borders on reckless endangerment. I don't work night and day to ensure the safety of my kids so your untreated, tin-foil hat wearing kid can threaten their well-being just by walking in the door.

You might be wondering what any of this has to do with human resources, your work force or employee benefit costs. Call it this week's wellness lecture, write me off as another public health alarmist or just chalk it up as the ranting of another new(ish) dad. If nothing else, it's a painful reminder of how there's no such thing as too much education.