(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
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Biden Administration Will Fund Program to Keep Covid Vaccines Free for the Uninsured [1]
['Sheryl Gay Stolberg', 'Noah Weiland']
Date: 2023-04-18
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to spend more than $1 billion on a new program to offer free coronavirus shots to uninsured Americans after the vaccines move to the commercial market later this year, administration officials said on Tuesday.
The program for the uninsured, which will be modeled partly on an existing childhood vaccination program and will cover an estimated 30 million people, will include a first-of-its-kind partnership with pharmacy chains in which the government will pay the administrative costs of giving the doses to patients. Pfizer and Moderna have pledged to offer the shots at no cost to those who lack insurance.
The administration’s move partly resolves a critical gap in the nation’s coronavirus vaccination strategy ahead of a new booster campaign with reformulated shots that is likely to begin as soon as late summer. Federal officials have said that they no longer plan to purchase doses for all Americans as they have in prior coronavirus vaccination campaigns, allowing the vaccines to be sold commercially and ceding power to manufacturers to set their own prices.
For the new program, the administration is counting on substantial help from the companies making the vaccines. In February, Moderna said it would use a so-called patient assistance program to provide doses free of charge to uninsured Americans. Pfizer plans to offer free vaccines through a similar program, a company spokeswoman said.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/us/politics/covid-vaccines-uninsured.html
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