Thomas Albushies | Oppose HB524

I am a Pediatrician, working on Concord, giving vaccines myself now for more than 20 years. The NH Vaccine Association is one of the best and most important groups for child health in this country. As a result of the work of the NHVA, children in NH are provided vaccine at a discounted cost (or free if they have no insurance) without ever having to worry about choosing between their health and their grocery bills. In most other states, physicians have to purchase vaccine and then sell it back to patients, often times at a high cost to the patients. Frequently, insurance coverage differences make coverage variable, meaning patients with one insurance want certain vaccines and patients with a different insurance want a totally different vaccine. This type of challenge quite obviously makes it harder for patients to get what they need. In this state, the entire process is streamlined and evidence based. Furthermore, physicians are never in a position of having to "sell" vaccine to patients, we can provide children these vaccines because it is obviously what is best for public health. HB 542 is clearly an attempt by anti-vaccine advocates to make it harder to access vaccine and more expensive for patients (children) and the State of NH to provide for the public health. As a strong advocate for children's health, I simply cannot understand why anyone would support HB 524 which does several things. A vote for HB 524 will: 1. Makes vaccine more difficult to access for patients 2. Makes it MORE expensive for families to receive medical care 3. Actually RAISES the costs to the State of NH to buy vaccines for patients with Medicaid. 4. Will INCREASE the illness burden in the community due to the rise in cost and decreased availability of vaccine. NH has long been recognized as one of the best places to raise a family, largely in part to organizations like the NHVA. Please vote down HB 524 and help NH remain one of the nation's leaders in child health.