Preventative Vaccines and Your Drug Plan

Here’s a question worth asking: what would it cost your company if an employee came down with shingles, measles, or pneumonia? While many vaccines are funded through provincial health programs, coverage is not consistent across Canada, and some preventative adult vaccines are not covered at all, leaving potential immunity gaps in your workforce.

Setting aside the stress of extra cleaning, communication, and potential contact tracing, the direct cost of one person being off work adds up fast. Most people with illnesses such as the above will need at least a week off, and sometimes up to four or more. If your company offers short term disability, salary continuance or sick leave benefits, the payout is probably around $500 to $1,000 per week (or more) which means the cost of an absence could end up over $4,000 before considering the impact on productivity, morale, or team dynamics.

The Power of Prevention

Here’s a statistic that puts prevention into perspective. According to Praxus Health, vaccines help prevent up to 12 million hours of missed work in Canada every year, the equivalent of about 6,000 full-time employees on the job instead of at home sick.

Source: The Value of Adult Vaccines - Praxus Health

When you do the math, it’s easy to see why ensuring employees have access to preventative vaccines in their drug program and encouraging vaccination participation in general, is a smart business decision.

Why Vaccine Coverage Belongs in Every Drug Plan

Adding vaccines to your group benefits plan is surprisingly affordable. Including preventive vaccines typically increases health plan costs by just 0.5% to 1%, or roughly just a few dollars per employee per month for many plans.

That’s a small investment for a big payoff in health, productivity, and peace of mind.

Plan Design Matters

For some insurance carriers, preventive vaccine coverage is offered on an “opt-in” basis. If that box wasn’t checked when your plan was set up, or if you’ve changed carriers recently, your employees might not have coverage for vaccines even if your organization values prevention.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to review your plan design to confirm whether vaccines are included in your drug program.

Carriers Are Catching On

The good news is that a growing number of insurers are now including vaccine coverage as part of their standard drug programs, recognizing both the public health and financial benefits.

Mapol recently released their 2025 Vaccine Coverage Report Card for Canadian insurance carriers, an excellent resource if you’d like to see how your carrier measures up.

Link: Vaccine Report Card

Final Thought

For plan sponsors, ensuring preventative vaccine coverage is included in your drug plan and promoting vaccination is not just about health; it’s about protecting your people, your productivity, and your bottom line.