Andrea Bentley-Melle, APRN

House Bill 524 would end our state's current system for providing access to vaccines for children whose parents choose to vaccinate. Currently, insurance companies pay money into a central fund (run by the NH Vaccine Association) that is used by the state to purchase affordable vaccines for all NH children whose parents choose to vaccinate them. This bulk purchasing of vaccines is an efficient and economical benefit for NH families. If this bill passes, doctors' offices would need to buy immunizations directly from pharmaceutical companies whose top priority is to increase their big pharma profits while passing on higher costs to families. Doctor's office staff would be responsible for another time-consuming task of billing private insurance companies directly and waiting for reimbursement while burdening families with additional co-pays.