Sue Manteris reporting

Parents, you may receive an unwelcome surprise the next time you visit your pediatrician.

News 3's Healthline 3 Team explains that certain Las Vegas families are being asked to pay for required childhood vaccines, even if they have insurance. This concerns some local pediatricians because Clark County already has one of the worst immunization rates in the country.

Six-month-old Julian is a happy, healthy baby who has no idea what's in store for him: It's time for more childhood vaccines. Fortunately, his family's insurance covers all of his required immunizations, but many insurance plans do not.

At one time, the state of Nevada provided all vaccines to children for free with a combination of federal and state dollars. But as more and more vaccines were added to the recommend list, it became impossible to cover all of the vaccines for all Nevada children. The newest addition to this list is the chickenpox vaccine.

Valley pediatrician Dr. Kami Larsen works at the Kids Health Care Clinic through the University of Nevada School of Medicine. She says the cost of vaccines is causing some families to skip recommended shots. "Patients just aren't getting the shots, they just can't afford them. Kids can suffer serious illness and death, "says Dr. Larsen. "If they contract these illnesses and as a pediatrician, I'm not able to prevent those in some of my patients...it's very disheartening. Those families, they deserve better than this."

Dr. Larsen's partner, Dr. Beverly Neyland, is concerned that old diseases will make a comeback in Las Vegas, like measles. "Since we have lots of visitors coming into Las Vegas, the chances of our having an epidemic of some controllable diseases are very high," says Dr. Neyland. "I think if we have an epidemic here, that's going to hurt our economy even more."

The federal Vaccines for Children program is administered locally by the state of Nevada. Recent federal funding cuts forced the state to drop its universal coverage for the chickenpox vaccine. Who will be caught in the pinch? Families who have private insurance which does not provide complete immunization coverage.

This is a growing trend. However, these parents do have an option outside of their private physician's office. They can go to a federally qualified health center for low cost vaccines.

The Health District expects to see an increased number of patients this year. Funding is still available for children who are uninsured or have Medicaid coverage.