Essay Sample: An Economic Evaluation of Vaccination Programs

In most developed countries, children are routinely immunized against major diseases e.g. polio, measles, diphtheria, tetanus etc. The major benefit of vaccination is; it provides the vaccinated individual resistance to infectious diseases. It also lessens potential contagion by non-immunized individuals, this will help to reduce the vaccination rates in a country in this case if Australia makes vaccination in children mandatory, where the parents will not be given a chance of not vaccinating their children. According to (Tabrizi, 2014); Herd Immunity is the resistance to the spread of transmittable diseases within a population and this is achieved if a high proportion of individuals are vaccinated against thee infectious diseases. Herd immunity describes how a population is protected from a disease after vaccinating the population. Hence it is beneficial for children to be immunized on compulsory. The paper will be able to determine that effective community immunization is dependent upon government policies, through economic analysis, which will alternatively shift the demand curve back to the socially efficient level (Brisson, 2003).

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Part A: A brief overview of childhood immunization rates in Australia and the current policy that links grants such as; "Child Care Benefits, Child Care Rebates and Family Tax Benefits" to Immunization in Australia (Palmer,2010).

There is a big economic problem if the nation fails to get vaccinated as most children in the population will be infected and this will make the parents channel more resources in hospitals and in trying to take care of their ailing children and this will affect the economic growth of the nation but the measures that have been proposed by the Australian government has invested in health care to ensure the economic growth is realized. According to (Palmer,2010), for mothers to meet the immunization requirements for Child Care Subsidy, all their children must be under the age of 20, must also be able to meet the following few prerequisites which include; Must have an approved medical exclusion such as natural immunity and must be recorded on the Australian Immunization Register (AIR). In a nutshell your child needs to be vaccinated in order to receive the subsidy like family tax benefits, Child Care Rebates, hence it's condition set by the Australian government that parents need to vaccinate their children against infectious diseases in order to enable them to get access to the subsidy program, (Palmer,2010). There has been the introduction of new vaccines in Australia and they include the meningococcal ACWY vaccine, infant pneumococcal vaccine, HIB (Haemophilus Influenza type-b) vaccine and finally, a whooping cough vaccine has been included for pregnant women.

The Australian government has also impoverished exclusion mechanism to separate those children with diseases which can be prevented by a vaccine, meaning they had not received the vaccination, may be asked to stay at home for in order to avoid the possibility of them infecting other children. Hence that is what the Australian government is ensuring the herd immunity is met through ensuring they restrict the spread of transmittable diseases within a population (May,2003). There are also policies that the government has done that is also linked with the other benefits mentioned like there is the provision of immunization history when determining the school enrollment requirements, the financial benefits were introduced in Australia to ensure that families get assistance for the vaccination fees on behalf of the parents (Gidding, 2005). Mass immunization days were arranged in Australia to allow more parents to get their children vaccinated and so that the ministry of health can be able to achieve its desired targets. According to economic analysis the subsidy programs by the government has ensured he rate of vaccination to be high in Australia hence increasing the demand for more parents to get their children vaccinated and since there has been an increase in demand of vaccination by the parents this has subsequently resulted in an increase in the supply of the vaccination drugs in order to be able to meet the objectives.

Part B: Description of relevant economic theory which explains how a policy that increases immunization rate could result in a socially efficient level of immunization rates in Australia

Economic theory is a hypothetical construct representing pecuniary processes by a set of variables or measurable relationships. There are normally three types of economic theories; Laissez-Faire, Keynesian economics, Monetarism. In this case, my report will focus on Keynesian Economics which states that entire expenditure on the economy and its effects on production and inflation (Gerrard, 2016). Keynes was in favor of increased government spending and lower taxes through providing subsidies like how the Australian government did to stimulate demand in this case of childhood vaccination against contagious diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough, pneumococcus, tetanus, polio vaccination among others and ensure the country has a population with herd immunity, this will pull the country out of the economic distress which will be brought about by increased child mortality rate ad this will dent economic growth in Australia. Keynes suggested this in order to ensure optimal economic performance is realized, the government did so by providing subsidies programs like family tax benefits, Child Care Rebate to ensure it achieves its desired objectives on childhood vaccination. Keynes alludes that if cumulative demand in an economy falls it results in weakening the production of jobs which will, in turn, precipitate a decline in incomes and prices, according to (Gauri, 2012), the Australian government is focusing more on increasing demand through investing in the health care, specifically vaccination to ensure the overall production is increased and this will strengthen production of jobs hence increase in incomes and prices (Gauri, 2012). This will result in lowering the level of inflation, this will enable employers to make capital investments and hence they will be able to employ, hence that is how the will ensure continuity in their economic growth as they try to ensure more parents get their children vaccinated.

Keynesian Economic will help in stimulating economic demand for vaccination n the population which will result in increasing economic supply of different vaccines during mass immunization and health care institutions, this will help also solve unemployment and will bring a balance in wages and capital (Mulgan, 2013). Once unemployment levels are reduced, also the benefits the parents will after ensuring they get their children vaccinated will benefit the society.

Critical Analysis

Asymmetric information means one party is informed than the other when making decisive decisions in this cause this would be a problem if one party gets the knowledge of the benefits of vaccination, his will create a shortage in the market and it will not help to address pressing issues like, hence there should be accurate information to ensure the market thrives and more people get employed n this will lead to growth in the economy (Brush,2014). If there is inequality of access to the subsidy programs prompting the increase in the rates of vaccination, this will lead to a shortage in the market and the economic growth will be imbalanced, hence it becomes difficult to try and ensure every child gets access of the immunization (Marsh, 2014). Hence this is still a challenge because even after the subsidies are offered not all parents respond to the call of ensuring that all their children are vaccinated, from communicable diseases (Newcombe, 2014).

References

Brisson, M., & Edmunds, W. J. (2003). An economic evaluation of vaccination programs: the impact of herd immunity. Medical Decision Making, 23(1), 76-82. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0272989X02239651

Brush, T. H., & Artz, K. W. (2014). Toward a contingent resourcebased theory: the impact of information asymmetry on the value of capabilities in veterinary medicine. Strategic Management Journal, 20(3), 223-250. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199903)20:3%3C223::AID-SMJ14%3E3.0.CO;2-M

Chin, L. K., Crawford, N. W., Rowles, G., & Buttery, J. P. (2012). Australian immunization registers established foundations and opportunities for improvement. Eurosurveillance, 17(16), 20148. Retrieved from https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/ese.17.16.20148-en

Gauri, V., & Khaleghian, P. (2012). Immunization in developing countries: its political and organizational determinants. The World Bank. Retrieved from https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/1813-9450-2769

Gerrard, B. J. (Ed.). (2016). The economics of rationality. Routledge. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=OpyKAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=The+economics+of+rationality&ots=bwlS78roKY&sig=VX-7FXrnbg2FXyOoHrSzKs1ij0M

Gidding, H. F., Backhouse, J. L., Gilbert, G. L., & Burgess, M. A. (2005). Immunity to diphtheria and tetanus in Australia: a national serosurvey. Medical Journal of Australia, 183(6), 301-304. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb07059.x

Marsh, K., Chapman, R., Baggaley, R. F., Largeron, N., & Bresse, X. (2014). Mind the gaps: What's missing from current economic evaluations of universal HPV vaccination? Vaccine, 32(30), 3732-3739. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X1400663X

May, T., & Silverman, R. D. (2003). 'Clustering of exemptions' as a collective action threat to herd immunity. Vaccine, 21(11-12), 1048-1051. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X02006278

Mulgan, G. (2013). Government, knowledge and the business of policy-making [Edited version of a keynote address at the National Institute for Governance. Conference (2003: Canberra).]. Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration, (108), Retrieved from https://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=200308591;res=IELAPA

Newcombe, J., Kaur, R., Wood, N., Seale, H., Palasanthiran, P., & Snelling, T. (2014). Prevalence and determinants of influenza vaccine coverage at tertiary pediatric hospitals. Vaccine, 32(48), 6364-6368. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X14008457

Palmer, G. R., & Short, S. D. (2010). Health care and public policy: an Australian analysis. Macmillan Education AU. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zKdIwTUn1ccC&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=Health+care+and+public+policy:+an+Australian+analysis.+Macmillan+Education+AU.&ots=fqXzrYjv0u&sig=-2VjnKXCJk9d-iFPo2rkxjOXzls