An open letter to President Donald J. Trump with an appeal to protect the American people. Email your members of Congress and urge them to tell President Trump to protect this critical coverage.
Dear President Trump:
On behalf of the tens of millions of Americans who get vaccinated each year to prevent infectious diseases, we are writing today to ask for your help in ensuring that Americans continue to have insurance coverage for the vaccines that they and their healthcare providers choose. Your leadership with Operation Warp Speed saved countless American lives and that leadership is needed once again to save lives from infectious diseases before it is too late. You have the power to make sure American families are protected.
As you know, the law requires insurance companies, as well as public programs, to provide insurance coverage without cost-sharing for vaccines when they are recommended by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). ACIP recommendations do not require anyone to receive a vaccine, but they are vital to ensuring coverage.
Without an ACIP recommendation, insurance coverage is not guaranteed. That means families could be forced to pay out of pocket for vaccines that have long been provided without cost sharing—vaccines that protect against deadly diseases like measles, hepatitis B, polio, and whooping cough. This means that fewer people will be able to get vaccinated, putting American lives at risk as disease outbreaks continue to spread.
Secretary Kennedy has already acted to undermine insurance coverage for pregnant women seeking a COVID-19 vaccine by eliminating the recommendation, despite universal opposition from every major medical society that cares for women during pregnancy, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
Secretary Kennedy’s latest move to replace all existing ACIP advisors has also sparked outcry from providers across the country who fear that access to needed vaccines will be lost if the newly appointed committee members alter or remove recommendations. If recommendations are removed, physicians will have the unenviable job of explaining to their patients (including both parents of children and adults) that they must pay out of pocket if they no longer have insurance coverage for vaccines.
Families deserve certainty that ACIP and CDC will uphold protections ensuring vaccines remain fully covered by insurance. Any weakening of these safeguards exposes millions of American families to preventable diseases and burdens them with avoidable, unjust financial costs.
It is in your power to protect the lives and wellbeing of all Americans.
Respectfully,
Vaccinate Your Family