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SALT LAKE CITY — Updated COVID-19 vaccines are already showing up on some pharmacy and health provider shelves. But a key program that paid for the vaccines when people lacked coverage is out of money. So those who are under-insured or uninsured could pay up to $200 for the booster.
And public health experts are keeping an eye on a variant that seems to be even more contagious than the one that's now spreading.
Per The Washington Post, "The federal Bridge Access Program covering the cost of coronavirus vaccines for uninsured and underinsured people ran out of funding. Now Americans with low incomes are weighing whether they can afford to shore up immunity against an unpredictable virus that is no longer a public health emergency but continues to cause long-term complications and hospitalizations and kill tens of thousands of people a year."
The article said that's prompting fears that the "paltry 22% rate" of those staying current on vaccines against COVID-19 will decrease even further. "And they fear that the roughly 25 million people without health insurance in the nation will be especially vulnerable to COVID because they tend to be in poorer health and avoid medical care when sick."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention archived the Bridge Access Program fact sheet once the program ended in August. But it explains that the program was a literal bridge after the public-private partnership that provided free COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. Government COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Program ended last fall. The program worked with local pharmacies, the public health agencies and local health centers to keep access free.
Per the CDC, access is still free "for most people living in the U.S. through their private health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid plans." The others are the 25 million to 30 million who are underinsured or uninsured. They had been temporarily provided access to no-cost vaccines from BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax.
Children were never covered under the Bridge Access Program but could get vaccines through the Vaccines for Children program.
The Bridge Access Program only covered COVID-19 vaccines, not flu, RSV or shingles shots. The Post reported it provided 1.5 million doses of vaccine to adults who were not well covered by insurance and was supposed to sunset this December, "allowing vaccines ahead of the usual winter wave." But it ended early after Congress removed $6.1 billion in coronavirus emergency spending authority as part of its effort to avoid a government shutdown.
Pfizer and Moderna have both said that patient assistance programs could help with the vaccine but didn't offer details.
