Dr. Blackstock: Federal Gov’t No Longer Covering the Cost of Covid Boosters Will Have a Negative Impact on Health Equity

EXCERPT:

BLACKSTOCK: "Right. So, when the public health emergency ended a few months ago, you know, what happened was that the vaccines were no longer at no cost to the public. And so, people who have health insurance under the ACA, if you have private health insurance, you are going to be covered. If you have public health insurance, you are going to be covered. But if you are uninsured, you may not be covered. So we need to figure out exactly what the costs are going to be. We don’t know yet. Fortunately, most local, state departments of public health probably will be able to give out that vaccine and that booster at no cost, but it remains to be seen what that cost will be. And yes, in terms of equity, it's like, you know, have we learned anything? Right? Have we learned anything from this pandemic? We need to make sure the most vulnerable, the most marginalized have access to the basics, and the vaccine is one of those things. If everyone is not boosted who needs to be boosted, we are going to see an uptick in cases and hospitalizations. We know this is going to happen."