Covid Tests And Vaccines Will Soon No Longer Be Free
As of May 11, 2023, the US government will no longer consider Covid a public health emergency, thus as of that date, testing kits and vaccines will no longer be free.
During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 the United States government responded by declaring it a public health emergency. This declaration gave all Americans free access to vaccination shots, booster shots, and at-home testing kits. That emergency declaration is set to expire on May 11th of this year and when it does the policies for providing these services at no charge will expire as well.
Up until now, the government has been purchasing these Covid-19 and test kits with the most recent purchases being 105 million doses of the bivalent booster shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and 66 million doses from Moderna. The government pays Pfizer-BioNTech $30.48 for a single dose and $26.36 for each dose from Moderna. When the emergency order expires, NPR reports that, “Both have indicated that as soon as that happens, they will raise the price they charge, somewhere in the range of $110 to $130 per dose, though insurers and government health programs could negotiate lower rates.”
Both companies have been planning for months to move their products into the commercial pharmaceutical market. Once the government’s stockpile of these doses and testing kits runs out, then an individual in search of receiving these items will have to work within their medical insurance networks and their personal care physicians. Congress already opted not to provide any more money to bolster the government’s stockpile.
The Chief Strategy Officer for BioNTech Ryan Richardson was quoted from a JP Morgan investors conference as saying, “We see a double-digit billion[-dollar] market opportunity,” This is somewhat of a concerning comment since we are still dealing with the spread of Covid-19 and it is still killing people throughout the world. And to hear directly from the pharmaceutical companies that are producing the vaccine that they are thinking more about the impact on their bottom line than the health and safety of their fellow countrymen and women, is unsettling.
With higher prices being charged to the consumer for these vaccines, that would potentially generate between $12.4 billion and $14.8 billion in sales for the already ultra-rich pharmaceutical companies. That total cost is over twice as large as what the cost would be if the government was purchasing these shots and distributing them. Richardson was also quoted at the conference as saying, “is more than justified from a health economics perspective.”
With insurance coverage, many people should still be able to get vaccines at low or no cost by working with their job-based health insurance providers unless they go outside of their doctor’s network. Citizens that are insured through either Medicaid or state-federal insurance programs will still receive the vaccines at no charge. People that either have a limited health benefit plan or no health insurance at all will be subject to paying the full price for the Covid vaccines. This is a major concern for our country since uninsured citizens usually do not have the financial ability to pay for insurance which may trigger their unwillingness to get vaccinated or use at-home testing kits which will only deepen the spreading of this potentially deadly virus.
