The Protecting Free Vaccines Act of 2025 would lock the federal definition of 'covered immunizations' to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations that were in effect as of October 25, 2024 — preserving them across Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, group health plans, and individual health insurance coverage through December 31, 2029. The bill amends parallel sections of the Public Health Service Act (new § 2799A-11), the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (new § 726), and the Internal Revenue Code (new § 9826) to require that group health plans cover ACIP-recommended immunizations as of October 25, 2024 without cost-sharing. Medicare Part D, Medicaid, CHIP, and the Vaccines for Children Program all get parallel protections, with explicit language preventing the federal government from removing pre-October-25-2024 vaccines from covered or recommended lists during the lock-in period. The October-25-2024 cutoff freezes the ACIP framework as it stood before the post-election change in HHS leadership. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon leads the bill with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Average Household Impact
- Free vaccine coverage — Locked to ACIP recommendations as of Oct 25, 2024 across Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, group health, and individual insurance through Dec 31, 2029
- State-flexibility floor on adult Medicaid vaccines — States cannot use benchmark/benchmark-equivalent coverage to remove covered adult vaccines
Transparency & Accountability
- ACIP recommendation freeze — Federal government barred from removing pre-October-25-2024 vaccines from covered or recommended lists during lock-in period
Congressional Summary
Protecting Free Vaccines Act of 2025 This bill requires Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and private health insurers to cover, without cost-sharing, vaccines that were recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices as of October 25, 2024. The requirement ends on January 1, 2030.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-09-18
- Date Added
- 2026-05-13
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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