Why is sustainable financing for immunisation important for the European Union?
European Union (EU) countries provide strong immunisation programmes to their populations, but they encounter persistent challenges to adding new population cohorts and adopting new vaccines. COVID-19 has also resulted in immunisation setbacks in the EU with public programmes requiring both political will and sufficient financing to recover and expand.
- Immunisation is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions available. High vaccine coverage rates offer significant and broad health, economic, and social benefits.
- Robust and sustained public financing for immunisation is essential to maximising service coverage, fighting misinformation, and ensuring equitable access to vaccinations for marginalised and vulnerable people.
- High levels of vaccine coverage are required across an individual’s life to realise the full impact and cost-effectiveness potential of immunisation programmes.
- Immunisation programmes need to be able to respond faster to emerging epidemiological and economic evidence, including through the introduction of new vaccines and the allocation of resources to underserved or vulnerable people.
What is the current state of immunisation financing in the EU?
- The number of vaccines included in public immunisation schedules varies substantially by EU country, and vaccination coverage often falls short of target coverage rates that help ensure maximum health and economic impact. Coverage rates can also vary widely by product, target population, and geography.
- Decision-making and financing for immunisation are highly fragmented subnationally, nationally, and at a European level. There is also discontinuity across planning for routine immunisation programmes and those for emerging diseases.
- For EU governments to meet regional immunisation goals, public financing is currently insufficient as immunisation is not prioritised in current health expenditure.
- Immunisation programme agility is needed to respond to dynamic population needs and epidemiological threats. Harmonised, rapid review processes for new vaccines and resource mobilisation and allocation mechanisms for vulnerable or underserved groups, such as refugees, are essential.
- Demand and supply barriers to immunisation compound challenges to financing. On the demand side, high and rising rates of vaccine hesitancy are substantial threats to immunisation programmes. On the supply side, inefficient procurement practices and complex market access procedures inhibit coverage efforts.
- Immunisation programmes in Europe are vulnerable to external and internal shocks like COVID-19, refugee crises, and increasing levels of internal and external economic migration.
How can EU governments, ministries of health, ministries of finance, and other immunisation decision-makers act?
1. Increase the funding available to improve coverage and expand available vaccines through public
immunisation programmes
- Leverage compelling economic and health evidence to advocate for increased spending on immunisation.
- Prioritise financing for immunisation within existing health budgets.
- Explore ways to increase the efficiency of immunisation financing through innovative purchasing and incentives.
2. Improve and strengthen coordination in decisionmaking and financing for immunisation
- Leverage the coordinating powers of existing and emerging EU-level initiatives like the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, EU joint health technology assessment, and innovative purchasing models.
- Ensure that new vaccine introduction is done in harmony with existing structures and funding channels.
3. Ramp up efforts to address important vaccine hesitancy and demand and supply barriers to coverage
- Increase financing and advocacy to address the rising threat of vaccine hesitancy in the EU.
- Explore and finance solutions to ease supply barriers including the use of innovative purchasing models and streamlined market access for vaccines.
