Insurers Brace for When U.S. Stops Buying COVID-19 Vaccines, Therapeutics
The federal government will stop purchasing COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics as soon as this fall, Biden administration officials said recently — meaning payers will have to procure vaccines and treatments like any other commercial pharmaceutical product. Health care experts tell AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that the move is likely to make vaccines and therapeutics less accessible and introduce dispensing costs that could drive up premiums.
The Biden administration is transitioning away from the “acute emergency phase where the U.S. government is buying the vaccines, buying the treatments, buying the diagnostic tests. We need to get out of that business over the long run,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Ashish Jha, M.D., said during an Aug. 16 event organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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