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medpundit |
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Tuesday, September 07, 2004During the study time frame, hospital costs dropped from $161.1 million in 1993 to $66.3 million in 2001. Varicella-related hospital charges accounted for 0.04 percent of all annual hospitalizations in 1993, compared with 0.01 percent in 2000. The study is here. It doesn't mention how much it cost to immunize the population during that time period. A single dose of the vaccine is $88. According to the CDC, 85% of children were vaccinated against chickenpox in 2003. According to the Census Bureau, in 2000, there were 19 million children under age 5. (I couldn't find data for 2003.) That means that 16.1 million were immunized against chickenpox, at a cost of 1.4 billion dollars. It's possible that there were fewer children under five, or that the CDC was referring to a smaller group of children. But it still appears that the vaccine costs more than it gives. posted by Sydney on 9/07/2004 08:34:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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