State budget cuts may have long lasting repercussions on the health of Summit County children after Utah lawmakers eliminated the funding that provides underinsured children with basic vaccines.
According to Summit County Health Department Nursing Director Carolyn Rose, the Utah Legislature used to provide local clinics with money to pay for the vaccines for underinsured children, one of the county’s most needy demographics. In 2012, children will have to go to Salt Lake City to receive discounted vaccines, which makes Rose worry they may not get vaccinated at all.
“Based on the amount of children we see needing discount vaccines, there is a large population of underinsured children in the area. Due to the budget cuts, there is no longer a clinic in Summit County for the underinsured children to go to,” she said. “We are worried that instead of parents driving their children to Salt Lake City, if they don’t have a car or the time, they will just get an exemption to the vaccine.”
Underinsured means the child has some type of health insurance, but the plan does not pay for immunizations.
Rose added that a child can receive an exemption for any vaccine, even the ones necessary for public school such as measles, mumps and rubella. Because of the number of visitors to Summit County, Rose said it is even more dangerous for a small child in the area to be unvaccinated.
“I think we may see an increase in preventable diseases, like chicken pox or whooping cough, due to this,” she said. “We don’t have a game plan yet because we are unsure how this will play out. This will affect hospitals all over Utah. We are anticipating this will be difficult and even private doctors are worried.”
Nann Worel, executive director of the People’s Health Clinic which provides medical services to uninsured residents, said they will continue to provide vaccines to uninsured children, but are unable to provide them to underinsured children due to funding restrictions. She added that the clinic is “heartbroken” about the number of children who may now be unable to receive their vaccines.
“I expect that we will begin seeing more people inquiring about what we can and cannot provide, unfortunately, we would have to change our whole mission in order to serve that demographic,” Worel said.
When talk of cutting the funding for vaccines first began in the spring, Rose said the Summit County Health Clinics began administering as many vaccines to underinsured children as possible and distributing information about clinics that would still be providing the service.
“Community health centers and rural health clinics are funded differently so they are still able to give the discounted vaccines as well as qualifying hospitals in Salt Lake City,” Rose said. “Each doctor’s office has a list of offices underinsured families can visit so that we can make sure the information is easy to come by.”
Families can visit www.immunize-utah.org/provider/vfc/default.htm for a list of health care clinics that provide vaccines at a reduced cost for underinsured children.