The state's bulletin, issued Tuesday by the Division of Insurance and the Department of Public Health, requires insurers doing business in Massachusetts to cover any vaccinations recommended by DPH and not solely those recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC recommendations generally dictate what what vaccines insurers will pay for.
Massachusetts is the first state in the country to take such a step, according to a news release from the governor's office.
In a statement Thursday, the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, an industry trade group, expressed support for the administration's move, saying it, "strongly supports Governor Maura Healey's decisive actions to ensure Massachusetts residents continue to have access to critical preventive vaccines, despite destabilizing federal policy changes that threaten public health."
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration restricted COVID shots to those 65 and older and those at high risk of severe illness from COVID. Last spring, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the government would no longer recommend that children and pregnant women receive COVID shots despite evidence that young children are vulnerable to serious illness from COVID and that newborns can inherit meaningful protection from mothers who get COVID shots while carrying babies.
Insurers typically cover vaccines recommended by an influential panel that advises the CDC, but Kennedy disbanded the panel earlier this year and replaced it with hand-picked members who are more closely aligned with his ideology. The panel typically issues vaccine recommendations in June but has yet to issue any guidance, leaving pharmacies and doctor's offices unsure of how many doses to order and whether they will be covered by insurance, leading to massive delays in the rollout of shots as the Northeast enters respiratory virus season.
Thursday morning, DPH gave Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein authority to determine which vaccines pharmacists were authorized to administer in Massachusetts, which state health officials said would resolve concerns that prompted CVS to announce its pharmacies would not carry the COVID shots this year. On Wednesday, Healey announced a standing order that essentially wrote every person in the state 5 and older a prescription for COVID boosters.
Massachusetts is one of the nation's leaders among states seeking to chart their own paths amid Kennedy's dramatic reshaping of federal health agencies. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic who routinely peddles false information about immunizations' safety and efficacy, fired the CDC director last week, prompting several high ranking officials to resign and warn that his disregard for established science, particularly around vaccines, was endangering lives.
Since January, Massachusetts has been involved in conversations with every New England state except New Hampshire, as well as New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, to create a coordinated vaccine policy informed by medical societies, not the CDC. The states are collaborating on disease tracking and emergency response as well. California, Oregon, and Washington announced a similar public health alliance Wednesday.
The governor has also proposed legislation that would give Goldstein more authority to protect children's access to free routine vaccinations and set priorities for mandated school vaccinations.