Children With Some Insurance Can't Get Vaccines
USA Today has a story about yet another quirk in the American healthcare system: vaccines that are fully covered by Medicaid.for uninsured kids are out of the reach of kids with some, but not enough, health insurance.
From the article:
"It's ironic that kids who are uninsured are better off," said lead author Grace Lee, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Harvard Medical School.An estimated 14% of children are underinsured, Lee and colleagues report. They can pay for vaccines or get them free at federally qualified health centers or rural health clinics if they live near one. "Technically, they have access," Lee says, "but they might have to go 200 miles" to the nearest center.
Of course this means that they do not, in reality, have access because a family that cannot afford to properly insure its children probably cannot take 200 mile trips whenever it pleases.
Lack of vaccines leave these kids vulnerable to diseases such as meningitis. This is clearly a serious public health problem.
