By Carlie Portfield
August 18, 2022
Source: Forbes
Photo Source: Unsplash, Hakan N.
TOPLINE The Biden Administration is in the early stages of preparing to shift the burden of paying for Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments to Americans after nearly three years of the federal government picking up the bill. KEY FACTS The Department of Health and Human Services will hold a meeting later this month to pave the way for insurers and patients to pay for Covid-19 vaccines, antiviral treatments and tests, according to the Wall Street Journal. Stakeholders from across the healthcare industry will take part in the planning meeting, during which representatives from pharmacy chains, state health departments and drug producers are expected to begin laying out how insurance coverage and reimbursement would work with the shift, along with industry regulations. The commercialization process is expected to take months to finalize, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the biggest challenge to tackle will be how to make sure the 30 million Americans with no healthcare coverage will access vaccines and treatments. The Biden Administration could stop buying vaccines, treatments and tests as soon as this fall, White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said Tuesday during an event sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, according to CNN.
Shifting from the current model could also mean billions of dollars in additional profit for companies that produce vaccines and antiviral treatments, as commercial prices will likely be higher than what the federal government paid, Kaiser Family Foundation health policy executive Larry Levitt told the Wall Street Journal. BIG NUMBER $79 billion. That’s how much in global sales pharmaceutical firms including Pfizer and Moderna reported from Covid-19 vaccines and treatments alone last year, February earnings reports showed, according to the Wall Street Journal.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“I want to make sure that when we make this transition, we don’t end up at a point where nobody can get a vaccine because we didn't get the transition right,” Jha said Tuesday, according to CNN.
Last spring, Congress stalled on a $10 billion deal to continue paying for pandemic response efforts, forcing officials to use other resources, like the national stockpile of Covid-19 tests and personal protective equipment. Jha said this week those funds will be used to purchase updated booster shots that will protect against new coronavirus subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, slated for a September release. The Biden Administration this month stopped funding supplies of monoclonal antibody treatments, like those produced by Eli Lilly, which announced it will shift to commercial sales.
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