April 10, 2007
AAP Fears Rising Vaccine Costs Will Lead to Under-Immunization

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in a special announcement today said it is alarmed that the soaring costs of vaccines, combined with lower reimbursements from insurance companies, will lead to under-immunization of the nation’s children and unnecessary outbreaks of preventable diseases. “The system for delivering vaccines is broken, and we’re going to be in real trouble if it isn’t fixed soon,” said AAP President Jay Berkelhammer. The AAP points out that pediatricians must often wait months for payments from insurers, including Medicaid and private health plans, and that in addition to the cost of a vaccine, additional costs of ordering, storing, inventory control, insurance, and spoilage are not taken into consideration by insurers. Approximately 85 percent of American children are vaccinated at pediatricians’ offices, but flaws in the current system “threaten to greatly reduce or even eliminate the physician provider role, causing many children not to get the comprehensive and preventive health care they need,” the AAP said. “Pediatricians are not looking to make huge profits off vaccines,” said Jon Almquist, chair of the AAP’s Task Force on Immunization. “We’re in pediatrics because we care about children—but we shouldn’t be expected to subsidize the public health system and perform our jobs at a loss. We have carried this burden for long enough.”