In its ongoing commitment to increasing vaccination rates across the state, Governor J.B. Pritzker, along with his administration, is taking action to make vaccines more easily available for low-income children.

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) are announcing the availability of vaccines for children covered under the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. Ordering vaccines for CHIP-eligible children, (a partnership between federal and state governments that provides low cost health coverage to children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid), through the VFC program will increase the number of providers for these vital services and help ensure vaccines are more readily available for low-income vaccines.

This effort to ensure vaccinations for those children whose families cannot pay for them, is a reversal of a piece of legislature passed by former Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2016 that made it harder for those in need to receive vaccinations. The Rauner administration then decided to require health providers to pay for vaccines for CHIP enrollees up front and wait for reimbursement from the state or private insurance companies.

The recent push for this program coincides with the recent uptick in measles cases across the country. According to IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the U.S. is currently seeing the greatest number of measles cases since 1992, despite the fact that measles were declared eliminated in 2000.

“Illinois is committed to every child being vaccinated,” IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said. “Vaccination is in the safest and most effective way to help prevent measles cases and outbreaks, and we are continuing to take aggressive action to ensure that all children continue to have access to vaccines.”

Since the new administration’s inception, the HFS and IDPH have been working together to rejoin the programs and increase provider participation to make sure all children in the state who need vaccinations will be able to receive them.

“The state has done a wonderful thing in making vaccines more easily available for children who don’t qualify for Medicaid, but whose parents still find that keeping their children up-to-date on immunizations can be very expensive, sometimes too much for the family budget,” Calhoun County Health Department Director of Nurses Sandy Teichmann said.

Although the Vaccines for Children program had been around for awhile, it was very limited as to what it covered.

“The VFC (Vaccines for Children) program has been offering free vaccines for awhile, but that program was only available to children who qualified for Medicaid, were uninsured, underinsured, or American Indian or Alaska Native,” Teichmann said. “The CHIP program, for children who don’t qualify for Medicaid, required providers to order vaccines from private sources at market cost, and wait for reimbursement. This was problematic for providers fiscally.”

This program will allow providers to obtain vaccines for CHIP children through the VFC program without having to buy vaccines from private sources at market cost and be reimbursed later. As more physician practices, health centers, health departments and other providers across the state transition into the program, children covered by CHIP will also be able to get their CDC recommended vaccines in their medical home.

With easier access to vaccines for children covered under CHIP, and increased measures to track vaccines administered, the goal is to vaccinate every child in Illinois and eliminate any discrepancies in vaccination tracking and reimbursement.

This action demonstrates how much Illinois is committed to every child being vaccinated. CCHD has always participated in the CHIP program, but this new legislation makes it a little easier to budget,” Teichmann said.