Cancer Vaccine Too Expensive for Most Young Women

Gardasil, a vaccine that promises to prevent cervical cancer, is considered by some to be revolutionary. However, many are saying that it's too expensive for the only people who actually need it-- young women--because their health insurance won't pay for it or worse, they have no insurance at all.

Gardasil is getting used less than doctors would like. Pediatricians and gynecologists from Arizona to New York are refusing to stock Gardasil because of its $360 price for the three doses required and "totally inadequate" reimbursement from most insurers.

Pediatricians, in particular, are rebelling, fed up after years of declining insurance reimbursement for vaccines, an explosion of new vaccines and fast-escalating vaccine prices.

Many practices must tie up $50,000 or more in vaccine inventory, run multiple refrigerators, insure the vaccines and spend lots of time on inventory management. They also must absorb the cost of broken or wasted vials and say that's not possible with most insurers reimbursing at just $2 to $15 over the $120 per dose charged by Gardasil's developer, Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

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With many 18- to 26-year-old women uninsured, gynecologist Dr. Rhoda Sperling at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York said only about half her patients who are not in long-term monogamous relationships are getting Gardasil.

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Dr. Jill Stoller of Chestnut Ridge Pediatric Associates in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, said the inadequate insurance reimbursement for Gardasil is keeping "a wonderful new vaccine" from many patients.

"It really is a shame," said Stoller.