By Amina Niasse
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. Democratic Senator Adam Schiff sent letters to insurers on Thursday ahead of a key CDC vaccine panel meeting asking the companies to publicly commit to covering routine vaccines for illnesses such as measles and COVID-19 no matter the group’s recommendations.
California’s Schiff urged health insurers in the letters to provide coverage for the routine shots with no out-of-pocket costs to patients, suggesting any changes in recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices lacked evidence-based reasoning.
Schiff in letters viewed by Reuters and sent to UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, Elevance, Cigna and Kaiser, a California-based health plan purchaser, said changes the committee has made have already left patients and providers in a state of confusion.
In May, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic, announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would no longer recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy pregnant women and children.
The Affordable Care Act requires private insurers to cover immunizations recommended by the panel. After Kennedy gutted the panel and replaced it with his handpicked advisers, some states moved to allow pharmacies to follow the authority of medical organizations, like the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, when administering vaccines.
For vaccines recommended by the vaccine committee before the meeting, industry trade organization America’s Health Insurance Plans in a Tuesday statement said health insurers would continue to provide coverage through the end of this year.
The committee meets on September 18 and 19 and will review recommendations for COVID-19, Hepatitis B and the combined measles-mump-rubella-varicella vaccines.
Schiff said the Affordable Care Act statute was written without the foresight of knowing the committee would have all its members fired by Kennedy and replaced with those lacking expertise or who were skeptical or against vaccines.
(Reporting by Amina Niasse; Editing by Caroline Humer and Chris Reese)
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