Childhood vaccines save lives and lower medical costs

August 19, 2024

Source: Zhou et al MMWR August 8, 2024 LINK This is over a period of two decades.

Source: Zhou et al MMWR August 8, 2024 LINK This is over a period of two decades.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published an economic analysis of pediatric vaccines showing that on average each dollar spent on vaccination saved over $3 in medical costs, and over $11 in total societal costs. Pediatric vaccinations prevented 508 million illnesses (4 per child), 32 million hospitalizations, and 1.1 million deaths over the cohort of children born over the two decades from 1994 to 2023. 

The researchers evaluated vaccination costs (both direct, including the cost of vaccinations, and indirect, including time for parents to go to get their children vaccinated) and illnesses prevented based on projections if vaccinations had not been available. They evaluated costs and benefits for vaccinations for childhood diseases including diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Hib, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis A, rotavirus, pneumococcus and hepatitis B.

Looking at the medical costs alone (first graph), vaccinations shaved $540 billion from medical costs. Considering additional societal costs (including death and productivity), vaccinations were responsible for $2.7 trillion dollars in savings compared to these vaccines not being available.

This research comes out even as nationwide polling shows fewer parents regard vaccination as extremely important.

Source: Jones, JM Gallup, August 7, 2024 LINK

This polling demonstrates the public health challenge of maintaining the high vaccination rates necessary for health and productivity.

Implications for employers

-        Childhood vaccinations prevent illness and death.

-        Childhood vaccinations also decrease total medical costs even after considering the total cost of vaccinations (including both medical costs and administrative and opportunity costs of taking the time to vaccinate children).

-        The social benefits of vaccination include benefits to employers such as increased parental productivity and decreased time away from work.

-        Employers can ask their carriers to report on childhood immunization rates and educate their employees about the importance of childhood vaccination.

-        August is National Immunization Awareness month – employers can use materials from this CDC site to promote vaccinations (materials are available in English and Spanish).

Thanks for reading.  You can find previous posts in the Employer Coverage archive

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Tomorrow: How should we think about the cost of cancer screening?