Mehmet Oz, head of the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, pledged continued insurance coverage for all recommended vaccinations in the country and urged people to get the measles shot as infections skyrocket.
His comments come as the Trump administration remakes the nation’s approach to immunizations by promoting personal choice and backing away from once-universal endorsements of shots that have controlled deadly disease outbreaks. Changes to the vaccine schedule have added to mounting confusion over which vaccines will be covered by government programs that often pay for childhood shots.
For any parent who wants their child to receive one of the vaccines on the newly-constituted US schedule, CMS will pay for it, Oz said at meeting of the pharmaceutical industry’s trade-group, known as PhRMA, in Washington on Tuesday.
“I make this promise in particular to moms whose children might need a vaccine and are fearful that any of these schedule changes might compromise their access to those medications,” he said.
Oz’s full-throated backing of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine comes as the US is grappling with the largest measles outbreak in decades. As of Feb. 13, more than 900 people have been infected with the virus this year across 24 states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That rate is outpacing last year’s tally of 2,280 infections, the most since 1992.
Oz, a former TV star who had his own health-focused daytime show, previously endorsed the measles shot during a Feb. 8 appearance on CNN, telling parents to get the vaccine while the outbreak rages. Oz’s boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been less vocal, and instead encouraged unproven remedies like vitamin A and cod liver oil during the height of last year’s Texas outbreak.
Kennedy has been on a crusade against the long-standing childhood vaccine schedule since he came into office, including reconstituting a federal vaccine advisory committee that decides which shots are covered by insurance and paring down the list of federally recommended vaccinations to target 11 diseases from 17. His actions have sparked questions about which immunization schedule to follow, whether insurance would cover the shots and where to get them.
Oz said CMS would cover all vaccines on the new schedule, which includes those for measles, mumps and rubella. The MMR is 97% effective in protecting against infection and severe disease, according to the CDC.
“Go get your measles shot,” Oz said.