A key Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel this week is considering whether to roll back recommendations about who should get vaccinated, but California and some health insurance giants aren’t waiting to see.
On Wednesday, the West Coast Health Alliance released its recommendations for vaccinations during the 2025-2026 respiratory virus season. That alliance is a new partnership between California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii to develop parallel recommendations for patients — bucking the CDC under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a longtime skeptic of vaccines. Gov. Gavin Newsom, other blue state governors, medical associations and even some top Republicans nationally have expressed concern that the CDC would not root its recommendations in evidence.
In the alliance’s guidance, those older than 6 months should get vaccinated for COVID-19. That sticks closely to the recommendations of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
And the Washington, D.C. health insurance trade association AHIP announced that its scores of members nationally will continue to cover COVID-19 shots through 2026. The group’s members include Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente, California’s largest private health insurer.
Public health officials and doctors had expressed concern that insurers would stop covering the cost of COVID-19 shots for many patients after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration limited eligibility to seniors and younger people with certain medical conditions. The out-of-pocket cost of a shot is reportedly upwards of $200.
Insurers typically incorporate the recommendations of the CDC. In May, Kennedy announced that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, and the CDC panel meeting this week is expected to make formal recommendations on Friday.
But in a statement, AHIP said it would rely on the CDC’s vaccine guidance as of September 1, 2025 — effectively ignoring any new recommendations produced by the CDC panel that was hand-picked by Kennedy.
“While health plans continue to operate in an environment shaped by federal and state laws, as well as program and customer requirements, the evidence-based approach to coverage of immunizations will remain consistent,” AHIP said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Kaiser in Northern California said it “is making the new COVID-19 vaccine available to all our members 6 months and older at no cost,” starting September 15.
“Kaiser Permanente’s administration of the COVID-19 vaccine is based on the latest scientific evidence and clinical guidance from our physician experts and many other sources, including leading medical societies,” the spokesperson said. “Vaccination remains one of the safest and most effective ways to help protect against severe illness.”
Michael Zimmerman, a family physician at Temescal Creek Medicine, a small clinic in Oakland, applauded the insurers decision. He said lack of coverage would be a barrier for patients who want to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccination has proven effective at preventing serious cases, hospitalizations and death.
“If somebody can theoretically get a vaccine, but it is the difference between them making a rent payment or not, that is de facto blocked access to care,” he said.
Zimmerman said he’d been concerned about the potential out-of-pocket cost of a COVID-19 booster for his patients. He and other doctors at the clinic have written prescriptions for patients who might not fall into the FDA’s new categories for those eligible to get the shot, such as healthy people younger than 65. Like many in the Bay Area, he and his patients had been confused about the shifting rules and whether they qualified.
“It shows good faith, it aligns with what we know is best practices, and the science that we know,” said Georges Benjamin, a physician and executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based American Public Health Association. He said the insurers are following what he sees as “the best science and knowledge” — while the CDC does not.
The CDC committee meeting this week is the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. On Thursday, the panel voted to stop recommending a combined shot for the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine for children under 4 years old; studies have shown children who got the combo shot more often developed a rash, fever and — in rare instances — seizures after vaccination compared with children who got separate shots. Varicella is better known by the name chickenpox.
The panel’s members delayed until Friday reviewing the guidance for vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B , which can cause serious liver infections and cancer. In 1991, the advisory committee recommended a dose within 24 hours of birth for all medically stable infants who weigh at least 4.4 pounds.
The panel is also slated to turn its attention to recommendations for COVID-19 shots on Friday.
In the Bay Area, demand for COVID-19 boosters was high this month during a late-summer surge of the virus, but rates of hospitalizations and deaths are low. The virus continues to pose the most danger to seniors and younger people with other medical conditions that elevate the risk.
The CDC’s current vaccine recommendations for the flu aren’t different from the guidance of West Coast states; per both sets of guidelines, those older than six months should get an annual shot. The groups also align on RSV vaccination.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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