Vaccines for Children

More than 95 percent of the nation's children receive recommended vaccinations by the time they enter school. Preschool children were overrepresented, however, in the widespread measles outbreaks of 1989-91, a situation attributed to underimmunization. The Vaccines for Children Program, created in 1993, is intended to boost immunization coverage for children by reducing the costs of the vaccines for their parents. Yet GAO concludes that the cost of vaccine for parents has not been a major barrier to childrens' timely vaccination. Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control cannot guarantee that the program will reach pockets of need--areas or populations in which immunizations rates are low and the risk of disease is high. GAO concludes that better use of Medicaid, public health clinics, and other health providers may hold a better promise of immunizing children against disease at a cost lower than that of the program.