Bills propose requiring private insurance, Medicaid to cover vaccines in Pennsylvania

(WHTM) — A bill package proposes requiring vaccines to be covered by private insurance and Medicaid in Pennsylvania.

The bills, proposed by State Senators Maria Collett (D-12), Nick Pisciottano (D-45), and Vincent Hughes (D-7), would require coverage by private insurance without cost-sharing and Medicaid. The vaccines must be approved by the FDA and recommended by professional medical societies that represent pediatricians, obstetricians and gynecologists, internists, or primary care/family physicians in their immunization schedules.

In a co-sponsorship memo, Sen. Collett says vaccines are essential to protect people from diseases and have saved 154 million lives worldwide over the last 50 years; however the recent changes to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP),