misplacedheidi

Just curious.....I assume that if Americans have no health insurance, they can still be vaccinated for free? The measles outbreak is concerning for sure. I was just thinking about the whole healthcare issue in the US.

I thought Gray's Anatomy this week was particularly poignant with their story line regarding coverage.

tom169

Local health department should provide vaccinations for free. Either that or a charity.

scrubbedexpat091

The Vaccines for Children Program

The Vaccines for Children Program (VFC) provides all recommended vaccines at no cost for children under age 19 who:

• Qualify for Medicaid
• Don’t have insurance or can’t afford out-of-pocket insurance costs for vaccines
• Are Native American or Alaskan Native

https://www.vaccines.gov/getting/pay

State's may also have various programs available for low cost/no cost vaccines for adults.

Pulaski

AFAIK various vaccinations are mandatory for enrollment in, and progress through public schools, and therefore, one way or another children have access to vaccinations whether or not they are covered by health insurance. There may be some exceptions allowed for parents to "opt out", but I suspect that most of the anti-vaxxers are homeschoolers.

scrubbedexpat091

47 states have religious and/or personal belief exemptions to vaccines, its not difficult to get an opt out and still attend public school.

California, West Virginia and Mississippi are the only 3 states who have no religious or personal belief exemptions.

Pulaski

OK, but choosing not to have your children vaccinated is different from not being able to afford to get your children vaccinated.

Giantaxe

It is. And if you look at areas where vaccination rates are low, they are often high income areas, like Marin County north of San Francisco. All this tells me that those without health insurance are indeed getting vaccinated at sufficient rates to give herd immunity.

scrubbedexpat091

Tends to be the same in Vancouver the wealthier areas tend to have lower vaccination rates. our most recent outbreak started with a student at a private French immersion school.

If you go out to the bible belt, vaccine rates tend to be low in the most religious areas as well.

penguinsix

Most public health departments in the US will offer vaccinations for free or at a drastically reduced cost. In some situations, like flu outbreaks, they'll have public vaccinations in a school or something where you can drop in and get a shot. When I was a kid we used to have "shot day" at school when we all got taken into the auditorium and got a jab.

Vaccination rates vary by the vaccine, so you'll find a place like Mississippi will have a high vaccination rate for MMR but low for chicken pox, while somewhere like California will be high for DTAP but very low for Rotavirus. It can really be all over the map, and it defies political and economic labels. Some prominent Democrats like Robert Kennedy and some of the most liberal areas of the United States (like Marin County California) are huge anti-vaccine places, but some hardcore Republicans (including sometimes Trump) and the reddest of the red areas are also antivax hotbeds. Some poor areas like West Virginia have some of the strictest laws on vaccinations, and some rich areas have some of the weakest. It's really an all over the map kind of thing.

Rete

It is unfortunate that many are opting out by using the "religious" objection even though religion has no place in their lives whatsoever. They don't want to vaccinate their kids because of the claim by some professionals that these vaccinations are what is causing Autism. If that were the case, my generation would have been the first to see the rise in the occurrence of Autism.

Love that the teenager who sued the school board about his not being allowed in school because he didn't have the chicken pox vaccination now is suffering with it.