Advocate links
- State and Local Government Resources
- Select a State to view resource locations.
- 317 Coalition
- Life-saving, cost-effective immunizations are significantly underfunded by Congress. ECBT has teamed with several partner organizations to create the 317 coalition to achieve increased federal funding for vaccines and vaccine programs. Visit the 317 coalition’s website to take action on this critical issue.
- Regional and National Resources
- Cost of vaccines
- The cost of fully vaccinating each child has risen dramatically with the advent of new, life-saving vaccines.
- Appropriations Chart
- Federal appropriation for the immunizations has not kept pace with the real costs of immunizing children.
- Congress not providing adequate funds to immunize
- 2005 estimate includes the cost to vaccinate one adolescent with one dose of Meningococcal and one dose of Td.
2004 and 2005 reflect new budget lines 1) Business Services Support and 2) Public Health Improvement & Leadership — which were created to the show CDC indirect cost assessments to programs
Td was not included in the cost of the full series 1999-2004. States negotiated their own contracts because there was no federal contract for this vaccine.
TdaP is expected to be licensed and recommended in FY2006; CDC estimates the new vaccine may be used 50% of the time in adolescents and the current Td vaccine used the remaining 50% of the time.
Economic Value of Vaccines
In addition to saving lives and improving the quality of life, immunization generates significant economic benefits. According to an extensive cost-benefit analysis by the CDC, every dollar spent on immunization saves $6.30 in direct medical costs, with an aggregate savings of $10.5 billion. When including indirect costs to society -- a measurement of losses due to missed work, death and disability as well as direct medical costs -- the CDC notes that every dollar spent on immunization saves $18.40, producing societal aggregate savings of $42 billion.xxxii Various cost-benefit analyses produce similar measurements.xxxiii
The DTaP vaccine is particularly cost effective. Each dollar spent on DTaP produces $8.50 of direct medical cost savings and $24 of societal savings.xxxiv More importantly, diphtheria immunizations alone prevent almost 13,000 deaths per year.
| For every $1 spent 1: | |
|---|---|
| DTaP saves | $27.00 |
| MMR saves | $26.00 |
| H. Influenza type b saves | $5.40 |
| Perinatal Hep B saves | $14.70 |
| Varicella saves | $5.40 |
| Inactivated Polio (IPV) saves | $5.45 |
xxxii Ross Rapoport, “CDC: Immunizations High But Shot In Arm Still Needed,” Cox News Service. 1 August 2003.
xxxiii Zhou, et al, “Economic Evaluation of Routine Childhood Immunization with DTaP, Hib, IPV,
MMR and Hep B Vaccines in the United States,” Pediatric Academic Societies Conference,
Seattle, Washington, May 2003.
xxxiv Ibid.