Silence, I think you need to rephrase the question. Vaccines are not free; they are paid for by the tax payer. The reaility is that our socialist governments (and that includes any government which deems it necessary to raise taxes and redistribute as they see fit, regardless of the scale of taxing and spending) consider it more efficient to bulk-buy vaccines and offer them to the general public, in the belief that vaccinations save more in medical expenses than they cost.
We're a little luckier than most here in New Zealand in that Pharmac, the government pharmacy buying entity buys the best value vaccines (not always the cheapest) and makes them available to the general public. It's probably one of the few cases where Government can do something cheaper than private enterprise. We did buy the Human papillomavirus vaccine for my daughter 15 years ago (about $300) but that has now been covered by the Ministry of Health. Research results on the radio this week indicate a 30% drop in cervical cancer since the introduction of the HPV.
