Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on April 14 signed a bill that empowers the state’s secretary of health to issue vaccine recommendations and requires insurers to cover vaccines and other services recommended by the secretary.
The legislation, Senate Bill 385, changes several aspects of state law regarding health policy. Under existing law, insurers must cover immunizations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Now, they’ll be required to cover vaccines and other services recommended by Maryland’s health secretary.
“Vaccine policy in the state of Maryland will be driven by science and not driven by internet conspiracy theories,” Moore said at a bill signing ceremony in Annapolis.
The health secretary’s recommendations will align with “authoritative medical organizations” such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, which accepts funding from vaccine companies, according to the bill.
The new law also allows pharmacists to continue administering approved influenza and COVID-19 vaccines, as well as shots used in response to public health emergencies, even if the CDC stops recommending them.
The CDC in 2025 and early 2026 narrowed vaccine recommendations, including rolling back broad recommendations for flu and COVID-19 vaccination.
The agency said that people should receive COVID-19 vaccines only after consulting with doctors and taking into account the risks and benefits of the vaccines and COVID-19, and it said that healthy children should not receive a flu vaccine.
In March, a federal judge blocked the changes. The federal government has not yet filed an appeal.
Maryland is one of the plaintiffs in a separate legal challenge to the vaccine schedule updates. Maryland is also one of dozens of states that declined to adopt the updated guidance.
Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Meena Seshamani said in January that Maryland would follow guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which released its own vaccine recommendations in 2025 that largely maintained the CDC schedule as of early 2025.
“Maryland remains firmly committed to immunization as a core public health priority, and will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure broad vaccine access in the state,” Seshamani said at the time.
The Maryland Pharmacists Association and Planned Parenthood of Maryland were among the organizations voicing support for Senate Bill 385.
“This bill will continue, and perhaps even increase, our ability to provide patients with evidence-backed, preventative services,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement to legislators earlier this year.
Opponents included the Love Maryland political action committee. Catherine Garrett, chair of the committee, told legislators that the bill was confusing for parents.
“Five years ago, messaging coming from the governor’s office was to never question CDC guidance on vaccination,” she said. “Now, the governor’s office is saying not to listen to anything that the CDC says.”