“When it was declared, [the PHE] allowed states to enroll a lot of people on Medicaid so that they would have insurance. Millions of people will get disenrolled over time when the PHE ends,” Gilbert explained. “Some of those people may have already secured employment with health benefits, so they'll be OK for the most part. It's really the people that remain unemployed or underemployed that will be the most affected., and some of them maybe have not gone back to work full time.
As long as the U.S.’s substantial federal stockpile of vaccines lasts, COVID primary and booster shots will, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, continue to be free for everyone regardless of insurance coverage, according to an. The availability and cost of COVID vaccines is determined by the supply of federally purchased vaccines, not by the PHE. But once that supply runs out, vaccine costs “may become a barrier for uninsured and underinsured adults,” says Kaiser. As early as this fall, the U.S.
For uninsured children, Gilbert said, vaccines may be available at a very low cost or no cost. The federally fundedprogram, for example, has been around since long before COVID and provides vaccines “at no cost to children who might not otherwise be vaccinated because of inability to pay,” with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention buying shots at a discounted rate to distribute to registered providers with the program.
For COVID-19 testing, uninsured people in many states have already had to pay out of pocket for PCR tests,