Monday, December 1, 2008

Vaccines: Profit vs. Medical Necessity



This is an interesting and revealing article I found on Yahoo.

Some doctors may give up vaccines because of cost.

"About one in 10 doctors who vaccinate privately insured children are considering dropping that service largely because they are losing money when they do it, according to a new survey.

A second survey revealed startling differences between what doctors pay for vaccines and what private health insurers reimburse: For example, one in 10 doctors lost money on one recommended infant vaccine, but others made almost $40 per dose on the same shot."

Comments:

While I truly understand that a medical practice is a business and needs to profit to succeed, eliminating vaccines because they are not profitable raises serious questions about the medical necessity of many, if not most, vaccines.

Any medical procedure or drug that is not medically necessary is ONLY potentially dangerous.

Note: See my related blog entries:

August 21, 2008: NYTimes article: Drug Makers' Push Leads to Cancer Vaccine's Fast Rise.

August 22, 2008: Who Guards Against Gardasil

November 2, 2008: It's Flu Season! Or, is it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I agree - how many of these vaccines ARE really necessary?

But also, WHO CARES how much money a Doctor is making on each shot, per child. How is that the priority???

Shouldn't the goal be - as both a medical professional and as the people we are entrusting the care of our children - to do their best in keeping our kids healthy and thriving.

What about wanting to eliminate these diseases all together?

Seems to me that their priorities are backwards if what they are most worried about is the bottom line in their checking accounts!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes, I agree - how many of these vaccines ARE really necessary?

But also, WHO CARES how much money a Doctor is making on each shot, per child. How is that the priority???

Shouldn't the goal be - as both a medical professional and as the people we are entrusting the care of our children - to do their best in keeping our kids healthy and thriving.

What about wanting to eliminate these diseases all together?

Seems to me that their priorities are backwards if what they are most worried about is the bottom line in their checking accounts!!!