{"id":9842,"date":"2025-07-02T17:16:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T22:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=9842"},"modified":"2025-07-02T17:16:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T22:16:25","slug":"insurers-arent-saying-whether-theyll-cover-vaccines-for-kids-if-government-stops-recommending-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/07\/02\/insurers-arent-saying-whether-theyll-cover-vaccines-for-kids-if-government-stops-recommending-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Insurers Aren\u2019t Saying Whether They\u2019ll Cover Vaccines for Kids if Government Stops Recommending Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/insurers-wont-say-if-theyll-pay-for-childhood-vaccines-dropped-from-recommended-schedule\/\">Wired<\/a> <strong>RFK Jr.\u2019s vaccine advisory board could stop recommending some routine childhood immunizations, leaving insurers to decide whether to still cover them. For now, most are remaining tight-lipped.<\/strong> <strong>In the wake<\/strong>&nbsp;of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) announcing plans to revisit its recommended schedule for childhood vaccinations\u2014a move that has drawn widespread criticism from experts\u2014major insurers have not confirmed whether they\u2019ll continue to cover the full cost of routine shots for children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/preview\/mmwrhtml\/mm6342a5.htm\">60 years<\/a>&nbsp;ACIP has provided vaccine guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including on the timing and dosage of childhood immunizations. Insurers are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/vaccines-adults\/recommended-vaccines\/how-to-pay-adult-vaccines.html\">required to cover the cost<\/a>&nbsp;of most jabs on the recommended schedule for children. On Wednesday, June 25, ACIP announced it would review the schedule, just weeks after health secretary and longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/rfk-jr-announces-8-appointees-to-cdc-vaccine-panel-theyre-not-good\/\">replaced the entire committee<\/a>&nbsp;with his own appointees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When WIRED then asked 21 of the country\u2019s largest health insurance groups whether they would stop providing cost-free coverage of current routine immunizations in the event ACIP stops recommending them, only&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueshieldca.com\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Blue Shield of California, opens in a new window\">Blue Shield of California<\/a>\u2014a company in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcbs.com\/about-us\/blue-cross-blue-shield-system\/state-health-plan-companies\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, opens in a new window\">Blue Cross Blue Shield Association<\/a>\u2014confirmed it would continue coverage.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wired RFK Jr.\u2019s vaccine advisory board could stop recommending some routine childhood immunizations, leaving insurers to decide whether to still cover them. For now, most are remaining tight-lipped. In the wake&nbsp;of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) announcing plans to revisit its recommended schedule for childhood vaccinations\u2014a move that has drawn widespread criticism from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-headlines","category-vaccine-headlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9843,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9842\/revisions\/9843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}