While the feeling might be the Covid pandemic is over?
People ARE STILL getting infections , tests and shots….
For some Americans?
That free availability IS very important and still needed…
The issue has come to the fore as provider and patient groups look for last-minute changes to the government’s plans for addressing the pandemic after the public health emergency, set to end in May.
“We know that the end of the [Covid public health emergency] is not the end of our work on Covid,” said one senior administration official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the ongoing deliberations. “It remains a public health priority, and a lot of people will still need these treatments.”
The administration doesn’t plan to shift responsibility for vaccines and treatments to the private market until late summer at the earliest, giving it time beyond the PHE’s May expiration to navigate the handover. Even then, most people would still be able to get shots and treatments through private health insurers or federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which would be newly responsible for negotiating their own supply deals with Covid drugmakers. A separate preexisting federal program would continue providing free vaccinations for uninsured children.
But for the roughly 30 million adults without coverage, the changeover means they could be forced to pay out of pocket for drugs that can cost hundreds of dollars per dose — raising concerns among health experts that those most in need of pandemic care will soon be least able to afford it….