Families concerned about health care costs now have one less thing to worry about. As of Jan. 1, children 18 and under will get their vaccinations without having to pay the cost of the vaccine.

Maine’s Universal Childhood Immunization Program (www.mevaccine.org) was initiated by the past Legislature and pools funds from the Maine Immunization Program and from private insurers to buy vaccines, which are then supplied to doctors’ offices for free.

Former Rep. Gary Connor, along with individuals from the Maine Primary Care Association, the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Maine Medical Association – among other organizations – worked for years on crafting the legislation that created the universal program.

Credit should also be given to the major health insurers, the pharmaceutical industry, the Maine Chamber of Commerce and the Maine Center for Disease Control. Representatives from these diverse organizations were able to bridge silos because they understood the health benefits of vaccinations and thought that the financial barriers to vaccinating children should be eliminated.

The new program is a victory for all involved, and especially for the children of Maine.

The legislation established a Vaccine Board that purchases all recommended childhood vaccines at reduced rates – on average, about a 20 percent discount from what private doctors now pay. Thus, insurance companies have a reduced bottom-line cost for immunizing their covered families.

Financial barriers to getting vaccines are greatly reduced, so more preventive care can be delivered, thereby lowering the disease burden in our communities (and lowering overall health spending).

Practitioners are relieved of the financial burden of carrying thousands of dollars of inventory in their refrigerators, and of having to bill families the hundreds of dollars it costs for vaccine materials when insurance claims are unexpectedly rejected.

The Vaccine Board is a true public-private partnership success. It solicits input from all the groups originally involved with setting up the program, and works with the Maine Immunization Program in setting policy, purchasing and distributing vaccine, and billing insurance companies for their share of the expenses (based on number of covered children).

This is a complicated task, and board members spend hundreds of hours annually making sure all these activities are accomplished efficiently.

As pediatricians, we are incredibly grateful to all who have helped make this program a success. We strongly believe that immunizing our young patients is the most important preventive activity we do in our professional lives.

Those of us old enough to remember polio, measles, Haemophilus flu meningitis, birth defects from rubella – all now virtually eliminated – appreciate how protected we are from these former threats.

It is painful for us to see well-meaning but misinformed parents refuse or defer shots thinking that their children are not at risk. These diseases are only an airplane flight away.

What keeps our preventable disease rates low in Maine is the fact that the majority of parents act responsibly and keep their children’s immunization status up to date.

When we vaccinate our kids, we are not only lowering their risk of disease, but also protecting the children around them.

Some children may not respond as effectively to the same vaccine (every kid is different!).

Some may not be able to get certain shots because they are too young or they have a disease or condition that doesn’t allow them to get vaccinated (such as some cancers). Also, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents are less likely to get sick when kids get their shots.

What keeps the unprotected part of the population healthy is “herd immunity” -– if enough people are resistant to diseases, they can’t spread. Thus, parents who keep their children up to date are not only helping themselves, but helping keep the whole community healthy.

As pediatricians, we believe that vaccines are the best form of prevention. We are delighted that the barriers to getting vaccines are greatly diminished with this new law.

– Special to The Press Herald