Ten Federally Qualified Health Centers across Maryland have joined the state’s Maryland Vaccine Program, giving uninsured and underinsured adults more places to get recommended immunizations at no cost, the Maryland Department of Health announced.
The Maryland Vaccine Program launched in November 2025 as what state officials called a first-of-its-kind effort, initially offering free vaccines through local health departments in Baltimore, Garrett, Montgomery and Somerset counties before expanding statewide. The program provides recommended vaccines at no charge to Maryland residents age 19 and older who are uninsured or underinsured, covering diseases including COVID-19, influenza, measles, pneumonia, RSV and shingles. Children who lack insurance coverage remain eligible for free vaccines through Maryland’s longstanding Vaccines for Children Program.
“With the addition of health centers to the program, eligible Marylanders will be able to find free recommended vaccines at more locations throughout the state,” Maryland Department of Health Secretary Dr. Meena Seshamani said in a statement. “Federally Qualified Health Centers play a critical role in improving healthcare access in Maryland, making them a perfect partner in our effort to protect more people and communities against preventable disease.”
The program is funded with $2.8 million allocated through the Maryland General Assembly, which allows the state to purchase vaccines that participating organizations then distribute to uninsured and underinsured adults. State health officials have said the goal is both to reduce the burden of vaccine-preventable illness and to give public health workers a larger supply on hand to respond quickly to local outbreaks. Officials cited last season’s respiratory illness toll in explaining the need: nearly 5,000 Marylanders were hospitalized with lab-confirmed COVID-19, more than 8,000 with the flu, and more than 2,600 with RSV.
Marylanders can locate a distribution site by visiting the Maryland Vaccine Program’s website at health.maryland.gov/MVP or by contacting their local health department to check current availability.
The health-center expansion comes as the state also begins implementing the Vax Act, a law Gov. Wes Moore signed in April after it passed the General Assembly this spring as House Bill 637 and Senate Bill 385. The law, which took effect July 1, gives Maryland’s health secretary independent authority to issue science-based immunization and preventive-care recommendations rather than relying solely on federal guidance. It requires health insurers to cover all immunizations and preventive services included in those state recommendations without cost-sharing, and it reauthorizes pharmacists to administer routine vaccines, including flu and COVID-19 shots, to patients as young as 3 without a prescription. State Sen. Pamela Beidle, one of the bill’s supporters, said at the time of signing that she was pleased the administration was “providing vaccines for all Marylanders that choose vaccines so they can remain healthy.”
State officials have framed both the vaccine program expansion and the Vax Act as part of a broader push to maintain vaccine access in Maryland amid shifting federal vaccine policy. Moore has said the state intends to keep “leading with science” on immunization guidance regardless of changes at the federal level.
