As vaccination rates continue to plummet under the Make America Healthy Again “personal choice” evidence-free ideology, measles has come back with a collection agency. A new Yale analysis estimates that if MMR rates drop just 1% annually over the next five years, the United States could be looking at $1.5 billion in new medical bills, public health responses, and lost productivity. That’s before you count the hospitalizations, the brain swelling, or the funerals. Vaccines are pretty much free; outbreaks? Not so much.
In just the first two months of 2026, the country has already seen more than 1,000 measles cases, almost 50% of last year’s also skyrocketing total. 94% of those infected were unvaccinated. For a disease declared eliminated in 2000, that’s “heck of a job,” RFK Jr!
Since 2019, more than two-thirds of counties and jurisdictions have reported notable drops in vaccination rates, an NBC News/Stanford University investigation found. Among states that track MMR rates, more than half their counties — 67% — fall below the level needed to stop a measles outbreak.
An alarming new report calculates the price tag for the U.S. if those rates continue to fall.
If measles vaccination rates continue to drop just 1% annually for the next five years, the cost to the U.S. could reach $1.5 billion a year, according to a new report from the Yale School of Public Health.
Vaccines are one of the best financial deals in modern history. Refusing them doesn’t make government smaller. It just kills children.