Kate is talking about insurance companies "covering" Gardasil, but that has nothing to do with a program of mandatory vaccination.

If a state approves mandatory vaccination, then they are signing on to funding of the vaccine for the entire eligible population, including those who are uninsured, or whose insurance won't cover the vaccine.

That's a HUGE amount of public money.

And it's being given to ONE company -- Merck -- for a vaccine against a fairly uncommon -- and yet almost entirely preventable -- cancer.

We don't even KNOW if the vaccine has any long-term side effects. What we do know? It's expensive. And it's only effective against 70% of HPV. And we know that cervical cancer mainly happens when women don't get Pap smears or don't follow up abnormal Paps.

I could see state funding for clinics to give the vaccine to at-risk populations -- not mandatory.

I could see state legislating mandating insurance co's to cover the vaccine.

I could see funding for education and followup programs for Pap smears.

I could see state funding for clinics to provide Pap smears to at risk and low-income populations.

But WHY would state funding be dedicated to MANDATING a vaccine for an entire population?

Again, there's one key reason, and you can be sure lots of it is at stake when politicians and drug companies get together: money.

I'd like to see a study comparing whether $2 billion spent EVERY YEAR on funding Pap smear and followup programs for the at-risk population would do more to prevent cervical cancer deaths in the next 30 years than this vaccine...

In the meantime, think about it...

The "Pap Smears and Followup Programs for At-Risk Women Program" doesn't have a team of highly paid lobbyists, it doesn't have a multi-million dollar advertising campaign, it doesn't have short-skirted twinkie sales reps going into every doctor's office in America, it doesn't hand out big campaign and political donations, it doesn't have a PAC, it doesn't help get politicians elected, and it doesn't allow for a big insurance company markup that ultimately gets passed along to the consumers.