Travel Vaccine Recs

[therethere]

DH and I are planning a trip to Colombia and potentially a second Central/South American country (thinking quick trip in Costa Rica, Ecuador, or Nicaragua) in October. We just started looking into any required immunizations. I had no idea they were going to add up so quickly. It appears that travel vaccines are not covered by health insurance. Anyone have experience finding discounted vaccines in Denver area? Are the costs I found reasonable for these types of vaccines? Lastly, do travel vaccines count as reimbursable by my HSA?

CDC recommends:
Yellow Fever - $130
Hep A  - $120x2 doses
Typhoid - $75
Malaria pills - $60

I'm feeling pretty defeated. Two realizations today have added about $2100 to the cost of the already unmustachian trip. 1. Dumb me screwed up CC travel hacking erasing "free" airline tickets and 2. the high costs of vaccines. Contemplating giving up and staying home. What I thought was going to be a fairly "cheap" trip now seems to be ballooning and we haven't booked anything yet! Stressed out to say the least...

[forummm]

If you have a nongrandfathered plan you should be able to get the Hep A for free because it's also part of the ACA's preventive services without cost sharing requirement. Just go to a CVS or Walgreens and they should be able to give it to you there (sometimes in the pharmacy, sometimes in their clinic--but call ahead to make sure they have it in stock). When you get there you can ask what it will cost with your insurance. It was free with mine.

You will have to go to a travel clinic or get a prescription for the other ones though. I got the typhoid pills as a prescription and picked it up at a pharmacy (it takes them a couple days to order it in since it's not a common one). I imagine the malarials will be the same. The yellow fever is probably only available at a travel clinic or the health department. You can possibly get everything at the health department at a decent price.

I think there's a 6-month delay between Hep A vaccine doses. One dose of Hep A is very likely protective, but the 2nd one is still good to have eventually.

If you go, don't drink the water (bottled is available everywhere--thanks Coke), don't eat anything not cooked (like vegetables), and bring lots of Pepto and Immodium (both are available in tablet form that can go through TSA).

[geekette]

I'll second the Hep A being covered by insurance, at least mine was. I got one (at Walgreens) before traveling to Ecuador and Peru this summer, and will get the second this fall for lifetime coverage.

Typhoid, OTOH, was not covered.  I paid a little extra for the shot over pills because a) once and done, and b) my doc said the pills have a good chance of causing stomach upset, etc.  Not on my list of fun things to do.

Yellow fever and malaria were not on the CDC recommended list for the areas we traveled (Galapagos, Quito, Cuzco, and Machu Picchu) so we didn't get them.

Bottled water was indeed everywhere, and cheap.

[therethere]

So as always I guess I overreacted a little too soon. It's a relief to hear about the Hep A being covered. I'll give my insurance company a call in a bit.

[Cole]

I used the travel clinic at denver health when I went to Honduras because they were the cheapest I could find and they didn't charge consultation fees (20-75$).

[Gimesalot]

You could get some of the vaccines as soon as you arrive in Colombia.  It will be much cheaper there.

[therethere]

I've read its much cheaper to do in other countries but I'm worried about the time until they are effective. Yellow Fever is 10 days. Unsure about the others. Right now I think we are planning to go to the Amazon within a day or two of arriving (based on relatives vacation schedule if they can figure out the logistics). We "could" move up the arrival date a week to compensate, but then we'd miss GABF in Denver. Somehow I don't think that suggestion would go over too well! Although it would be smart since it would be saving us like $500. Even better would be to skip Amazon which may get us out of needing 2/4 shots.