Free COVID-19 tests ending for uninsured Americans
Source: ABC
Americans who don't have health insurance will now start to see some of the free COVID-19 testing options disappear, even if they are showing symptoms.
Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest testing companies in the country, told ABC News that patients who are not on Medicare, Medicaid or a private health plan will now be charged $125 dollars ($119 and a $6 physician fee) when using one of its QuestDirect PCR tests either by ordering a kit online or visiting one of the 1,500 Quest or major retail locations that administer the tests, such as Walmart or Giant Eagle.
This week, federal funding to cover the cost of COVID-19 testing and treatment for uninsured Americans officially dried up; any further infusion of cash hinges on Congress passing the White House's request for billions more in COVID relief, which is still stuck at an impasse.
Quest has begun notifying its clients and partners they can no longer expect to be reimbursed for uninsured claims, barring additional funding from Congress.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/free-covid-19-tests-ending-uninsured-americans/story?id=83649812&cid=social_twitter_abcn
Uninsured patients who want or need a COVID-19 test and get it at one of Northwell's GoHealth Urgent Care clinic sites will now be charged between $120 and $195 for a PCR test, in addition to external lab fees accrued for the test's processing.
Patients needing a COVID-19 test who have no insurance and go to one of Statcare's 13 urgent clinics across New York will now be charged $100 for a PCR test.
dalton99a
(81,091 posts)airplaneman
(1,237 posts)30 billion more for the military than what was asked for but an end to uninsured Covid testing funding.
-Airplane
C Moon
(12,188 posts)They GOP are sick bastards. Sick bastards who worked with putin in attempt to sell the US to billionaires.
Deminpenn
(15,246 posts)The local Giant Eagle has them for $10 in a basket tree right in front shoppers as they enter by the checkout lines.
iluvtennis
(19,758 posts)impossible for me to find a low cost antigen test for an international trip to visit my daughter.
Taking an at home antigen test wasn't sufficient for international travel -- needed official paperwork from a diagnostic lab.
I had to go 30 miles outside of my city to find one.
All of the CVS and Walgreen stoes only offer the PCR test for a whooping $139.
It's just shameful what corporations are doing in the midst of this pandemic (...and yest it's still a pandemic until 70/80% of the world population is vaccinated...)
Orrex
(63,086 posts)This will help us pretend--falsely--that the pandemic is over, because the goal since day one has been to reopen the economy for the sake of the wealthy.
Can't wait for the stunned officials in the coming days expressing their shock because "nO OnE cOuLd HaVe PrEdiCteD tHiS nEw VaRiAnT."
area51
(11,868 posts)which rations healthcare on personal wealth, isn't the best system to have.
AntivaxHunters
(3,234 posts)OneCrazyDiamond
(2,029 posts)Visit healthcare.gov and get coverage.