National vaccination program - a success story of public health and economy.

Abstract

The savings in treatment costs generated by disease cases prevented by the national vaccination program exceed the costs of the vaccination program by at least 60 million euros. In addition, other costs due to contracting the illness are avoided. Vaccinations serve the purpose of both increasing well-being and releasing resources for other uses. Financial support of vaccinations through the health insurance system would be costly and targetted to those with the ability to pay. Public funds should be directed to the development of a vaccination program. New vaccines coming on the market are expensive. Adding a new vaccine to the vaccination program is based on scientific evidence-based expert assessments and cost-effectiveness. In addition to preliminary assessments carried out in support of decision-making, the National Institute of Health and Welfare monitors by using population-based health registers the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the vaccination program. From the standpoint of transparency of decision-making it would be preferred that the decision-makers define a willingness to pay threshold below which an intervention would be accepted and lead to funding.