Insurance confusion stops women from HPV vaccine
Lia Gormsen
Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: News
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At Loyola and other Baltimore-area universities, confusion about insurance coverage and cost, as well as a lack of awareness, stands between female students and a new vaccine that may greatly reduce their risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease that may cause cervical cancer.
At a table of four Butler and Hammerman residents having dinner together in Boulder last Friday, three had heard of the HPV vaccine, two had spoken about it with their family physician, and one knew of at least one person who had gotten the vaccine. But none were aware of the cost, or had any idea the vaccine was offered at Loyola's clinic.
"My physician said to wait until more research comes out on the long-term side effects," said freshman Morgan Baker, who said she plans on waiting a year before being vaccinated.
The vaccine, which is administered in a series of three shots over six months, wards off four strains of the STD human papillomavirus. Two of these strains cause genital warts, while the other two lead to approximately 70 percent of the instances of cervical cancer in the United States.
Healthcare professionals at schools including Loyola, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Maryland are working to promote the vaccine and educate their students about the prevalence of the virus.
But what they are failing to tell students about the vaccine's widespread insurance coverage is perhaps more significant: the $390 cost, a barrier for many financially strained students, will most likely be reimbursed by students' private insurance providers, according to Merck, makers of Gardasil, the brand name of the vaccine.
This message is especially critical in light of a recent study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found women aged 20 to 24 to be at the greatest risk for contracting HPV. The study noted that 44.8 percent of women between those ages had the disease, and that women's chances for acquiring the disease rose each year between the ages of 14 and 24.
At a table of four Butler and Hammerman residents having dinner together in Boulder last Friday, three had heard of the HPV vaccine, two had spoken about it with their family physician, and one knew of at least one person who had gotten the vaccine. But none were aware of the cost, or had any idea the vaccine was offered at Loyola's clinic.
"My physician said to wait until more research comes out on the long-term side effects," said freshman Morgan Baker, who said she plans on waiting a year before being vaccinated.
The vaccine, which is administered in a series of three shots over six months, wards off four strains of the STD human papillomavirus. Two of these strains cause genital warts, while the other two lead to approximately 70 percent of the instances of cervical cancer in the United States.
Healthcare professionals at schools including Loyola, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Maryland are working to promote the vaccine and educate their students about the prevalence of the virus.
But what they are failing to tell students about the vaccine's widespread insurance coverage is perhaps more significant: the $390 cost, a barrier for many financially strained students, will most likely be reimbursed by students' private insurance providers, according to Merck, makers of Gardasil, the brand name of the vaccine.
This message is especially critical in light of a recent study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found women aged 20 to 24 to be at the greatest risk for contracting HPV. The study noted that 44.8 percent of women between those ages had the disease, and that women's chances for acquiring the disease rose each year between the ages of 14 and 24.
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