Health professionals advocate for vaccine coverage

Dover, Del. – Health professionals testified at Legislative Hall on Wednesday in support of a bill that would ensure health insurance providers cover immunizations that, up until last year, were recommended by the CDC.

House Bill 338, sponsored by Representative Mara Gorman, would ensure insurers cover immunizations that were supported by national clinical guidelines that were in effect at the start of 2025. This would include vaccines that the CDC moved off their recommended child immunization schedule in January. Delaware Academy of Medicine Executive Director Kate Smith testified in support of the bill when it came to the Banking, Business, Insurance and Technology Committee in the Senate.

“A lot of changes have happened to the vaccine recommended schedule since that time,” Delaware Academy of Medicine Executive Director Kate Smith told WMDT. “The most recent recommendations by ACIP, which is the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, has decreased the number of vaccines recommended from 18 to 11, which will lead to a lot of people getting sick, quite frankly, to put it very simply.”

HB 338 has already passed in the House and is ready to be considered on the Senate floor.