The President has declared May 11 as the date for an end to the Covid-19 public health emergency. Rachel Cohrs reports for Stat that once the public health emergency ends, older adults and people with disabilities will be at greater risk of not getting needed care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers Medicare, says that people with Medicare will face higher costs for Covid-19 tests and treatments.
People with Medicare currently get free Covid-19 tests. They also get Paxlovid, a prescription drug which treats Covid-19, for free. Come May 11, Covid-19 tests will no longer be free. Paxlovid will remain free until supplies run out, most likely in the summer. But, people with Medicare could have out-of-pocket costs for other treatments.
Comprehensive coverage of Covid-19 tests and treatment is critical for people with Medicare; older adults are more likely to die of Covid than working people or any other age group. Paula Span reports for the New York Times that in January alone, 10,600 people with Medicare died of Covid, which represented 90 percent of all Covid deaths last month. Overall, people with Medicare over 75 represent 75 percent of Covid deaths–8,500 deaths in January.
People with Medicare are also five times more likely to be hospitalized because of Covid-19 than younger people. Hospitalizations and deaths are higher than they should be for people with Medicare because six in ten of them have not received the bivalent booster.
What Covid-related services will Medicare cover after the Covid public health emergency ends? After the public health emergency ends, vaccines, lab tests, and antigen tests that a physician or other health care provider orders will remain free for people with Medicare. If there are monoclonal antibody treatments that are effective, they will also be covered through the end of 2023.
Insurers covering working people have yet to determine how much their enrollees will pay for Covid-19 tests and treatments once the public health emergency ends.
People with Medicaid will continue to get free vaccines once the public health emergency ends. But, they will not have protections against out-of-pocket costs for Covid testing and treatments beginning January 2025.
People who are uninsured are most at risk at the end of the public health emergency. States will no longer have funding through Medicaid to cover their Covid-19 tests, vaccines and treatments.
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