It is estimated that vaccines have saved 154 million lives worldwide over the last 50 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and all physician and public health professional societies state that the safest and most effective way to protect yourself, your family, and your community from vaccine-preventable illnesses are immunizations. Recent changes to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a deliberative body that makes binding recommendations under the Affordable Care Act and the Vaccines for Children program on vaccine coverage and use in the United States, has raised concerns about the relevant experience of the new appointees and their potential to restrict or eliminate the use of life-saving immunizations without scientific justification.
                            
Governor Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, and the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner have all emphasized the importance of vaccines and further noted the negative consequences that an ACIP failure to continue recommending current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved vaccines would have for our constituents. This failure to recommend existing vaccines would lead to gaps in insurance coverage for this vital public health intervention. It would increase long-term healthcare spending, strain our already stretched thin healthcare infrastructure, and, most importantly, leave all Pennsylvanians susceptible to preventable illnesses or diseases.
 
To ensure that vaccines remain accessible, we plan to introduce a package of legislation to require private insurance without cost-sharing and Medicaid coverage of vaccines that are approved by the FDA and are recommended by professional medical societies that represent pediatricians, obstetricians and gynecologists, internists, or primary care/family physicians in their immunization schedules. Our legislation will promote the goal of protecting the health and well-being of everyone in our Commonwealth and prevent unnecessary cost barriers and other negative consequences that would occur should ACIP fail to recognize established scientific evidence and either restrict or withdraw their recommendation for existing FDA-approved vaccines in immunization schedules. This legislative package is particularly important given the upcoming influenza season and that current vaccine insurance coverage is tied to recommendations from ACIP.
 
Please consider joining us in co-sponsoring this legislative package to protect access to the proven beneficial public health intervention of vaccines for all Pennsylvanians.