This Vaccines for Children Program provides vaccines to children whose parents or guardians
are not able to afford them. The vaccines that qualify for this program are
those recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP),
and they protect babies, young children and adolescents from 16 diseases.
In my opinion, this program has economic justification due to the positive externality. When these infants are given the vaccines, they
are now significantly less likely to carry a disease and pass it on to another
person. In other words, society benefits from underprivileged children
receiving free vaccines because then the rest of society is less likely to get
sick and hurt the overall economy.
It terms of equity, I think this policy is
completely fair. The only argument that I might make is that it could be taken
further. For example, as is done in some other countries, it may be a good idea
to make vaccinations mandatory. Assuming that there are some poor families that
will choose not to take advantage of the VCF, a mandatory vaccination program
could make sure that society reaches the optimal quantity of vaccinations.
-Jake Meister
No comments:
Post a Comment