Biden administration to fund program to keep Covid vaccines free for the uninsured

The program, which will include a partnership with pharmacy chains, will help cover the cost of vaccinating patients when the vaccines enter the commercial market more late this year.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to spend more than $1 billion on a new program to provide free coronavirus injections to uninsured Americans after the passage of vaccines on the commercial market later this year, administration officials said Tuesday.

The program for the uninsured, which will be modeled in part on a existing childhood immunization program and will cover approximately 30 million people, will include a unique partnership with pharmacy chains where the government will pay the administrative costs of administering doses to patients. Pfizer and Moderna have pledged to offer the vaccines free of charge to those without insurance.

The administration's decision partially addresses a critical gap in the national coronavirus vaccination strategy before a new booster campaign with reformulated plans which should begin as soon as the end of the summer. Federal officials have said they no longer plan to purchase doses for all Americans as they have done in previous coronavirus vaccination campaigns, allowing vaccines to be sold commercially and ceding power manufacturers to set their own prices.

For the new program, the administration is counting on substantial help from companies manufacturing the vaccines. In February, Moderna said it would use a so-called patient assistance program to provide free doses to uninsured Americans. Pfizer plans to offer free vaccines through a similar program, a company spokeswoman said.

Details of those programs are still in development. course of development. Jennifer Kates, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said drug company relief programs vary by company and drug, a patchwork system that can be complicated and inaccessible. Companies often require proof of income or proof that a patient is uninsured, Dr. Kates said, and it's unclear how long drugmaker programs might last.

'It's a Band-Aid,' she said. ”

But Xavier Becerra, President Biden's health and human services secretary, said it was in companies' best interests to keep programs going

"It's their business acumen," Mr. Becerra said in an interview. "The last thing they want is to become an object. of derision because people say: 'What gives? All of a sudden, we have to pay for this vaccine?'"

The new vaccination initiative comes as the administration looks beyond the emergency public health response to the coronavirus, which was declared under President Donald J. Trump in 2020 and extended under Mr. Biden.The administration plans to allow the emergency to expire on May 11, placing the country on the pathway to treating Covid-19 like another respiratory disease, such as the flu.

The new initiative will also cover some costs associated with Covid-19 treatments for people not In addition, the administration is working on a $5 billion program to boost next-generation coronavirus vaccines and treatments.

"Covid doesn't is not over,” said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. “And as we emerge from the public health emergency and all the flexibilities it has provided, we are committed to ensuring that we continue to fight Covid. And that means making sure people have access to vaccines, treatments and tests."

The end of the public health emergency will have no impact immediate on Americans' ability to gain access to coronavirus vaccines.For now, people can still get free shots from the stockpile of doses the federal government has already purchased. The Food and Drug Administrati reported on Tuesday. ..