A group of New Hampshire Republicans are trying to eliminate a nonprofit that works within the state to provide free vaccines to families, and the only Republican doctor in the state’s Legislature was kicked off a health committee one day before the proposal was voted favorably out of committee.
Proponents say the bill would save taxpayer money and enhance transparency, while opponents, including doctors around the state, are rallying to defend the New Hampshire Vaccine Association.
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A controversial bill, recently passed favorably out of committee, is raising alarm among New Hampshire doctors who warn it could jeopardize patient access to critical vaccines and burden health care providers.
The legislation seeks to dismantle the New Hampshire Vaccine Association, a nonprofit entity that has facilitated low-cost vaccine distribution to health care providers for over two decades.
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WATCH HEREProponents of the bill, like state Rep. Jim Kofalt, deputy majority leader and a member of the Health and Human Services Committee, argue that eliminating the nonprofit would save taxpayer money and enhance transparency.
"We don't see why the same systems in place to distribute pharmaceuticals couldn't distribute vaccines just as efficiently," Kofalt said. "We don't fully know the cost, but there are people in [the Department of Health and Human Services] allocating time towards working with them and enabling their mission, and those are soft costs absorbed into the larger expense structure of DHHS."
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SIGN UP That claim was strongly rejected by state Rep. Dave Nagel, an orthopedic physician who emphasized that the vaccine association is funded by commercial insurers, not taxpayers.
"I've been studying health care economics for 45 years and the free market system does not work very well for health care because it is a public good," Nagel said. "This is something that started in New Hampshire. Other states are seeing what a great idea it is and they're replicating it, so the one state that started this great thing is going to get rid of it?"
The New Hampshire Vaccine Association was established by the state's Legislature in 2002.
"The insurers benefit by preventing illness, the doctors benefit by getting an inexpensive product they can administer easily, and patients benefit by being able to prevent," Nagel said. "It's a win-win-win. When does that ever happen?"
The debate has been further inflamed by Nagel's abrupt removal from the Health and Human Services Committee by House Speaker Sherman Packard, just one day before the bill was scheduled for a vote. Nagel is the only Republican doctor in the legislature.
"When I became a doctor — we take a Hippocratic oath," Nagel said. "I don't take an oath to any political party, but I do take an oath to that, and anything I do, whether it's in my medical practice, whether it's in the state house, anywhere, I'm upheld to those standards."
Physicians across the state are rallying to defend the nonprofit, expressing deep concerns about the potential impact on vaccine accessibility.
"The vaccines are extremely expensive, $200-$400 a shot," said Patricia Edwards, a pediatrician at Concord Hospital. "That means tens of thousands of dollars you'd have to put up front before getting reimbursed."
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Nagel echoed this concern, warning of a potential surge in vaccine costs for patients and a decline in vaccination rates.
"We will start to see kids not get vaccinated or do so at an extremely higher cost," Nagel said.
House Speaker Sherman Packard did not respond to NBC10 Boston's requests for comment.
The bill is slated to go before the House floor for a vote next month. If passed, it will proceed to the Senate for further consideration.
