Is your child underinsured? Watch out, because, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, he or she may be one of the million or more American children in the United States not receiving vaccines as a result of complicated vaccine policies.
Children and adolescents today are taking far more vaccinations than they were about four years ago. Some of the newly recommended vaccinations are for meningococcal conjugate, tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap), hepatitis A, influenza, rotavirus, and human papillomavirus. This has resulted in the cost of vaccines climbing 7.5 times from $155 for one child in 1995 to $1,170 in 2007.
Most often, children of parents who cannot afford providing all the shots are directed to public clinics for the immunization. But, contrary to expectations, the newer and costlier vaccines are not made available to them.
Although vaccines for American children are funded by public and private enterprises it has now been noted that the disparity between children who have been insured and those who have private insurance has increased.
In the second part of their study Grace M. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., from Boston's Harvard Medical School, and Boston's Children's Hospital and her colleagues scrutinized the conditions of financing and distribution of new pediatric vaccines with nine state immunization program managers and followed this with interviews and surveys of 48 state immunization program managers from January to June 2006.
The scientists discovered that state funded vaccines were not available for under insured children in both sectors, public and private. For instance, of the vaccines provided by the private sector, underinsured children in 46% of states did not receive the chicken pox varicella vaccine. So too, was it found that 70% of the states had not supplied the publicly bought meningococcal conjugate vaccine for the underinsured children.
In the case of the public sector it was only 17% of the states that did not provide the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine vaccine and 40% that did not provide the publicly purchased meningococcal conjugate vaccine. The authors remarked that this resulted in uninsured children not receiving state purchased vaccines such as these in either the private or public sectors of the states. None of the under insured children were covered by these vaccines.
The most common reason given for this was insufficient federal and state funding. Because their finances for vaccines had been limited, ten states had altered their policies of providing publicly bought vaccines from 2000 to early 2006. This limited the number of new vaccines underinsured children received.
Dr. Lee remarked, “We assumed kids with health insurance would have coverage for vaccinations, but we found a group of children whose insurance didn't cover the cost of vaccine. That to me was surprising. Childhood immunization is ranked as one of the most important preventive health services we can offer… Due to the increased cost of recently recommended vaccines and the lack of available funding, many states have been forced to adopt more restrictive policies for the provision of publicly purchased vaccines.”
The costs of three of these vaccines are as follow: HPV vaccine, about $120 for one of three doses; meningitis vaccine, about $80; rotavirus vaccine about $60.
Dr. Sean Palfrey, pediatrician says why the shots are so important.
“By immunizing the children, you're not just protecting the children but you're protecting their families and communities.”
Dr. Lee stresses the need for strategies, “to enhance immunization benefits for underinsured children in private health plans and to support the public sector safety net in order to ensure the protection of this vulnerable group of children.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases sponsored these studies.
