Republicans Must Join With Democrats and Immediately Approve Additional Funding
Last night, Republicans blocked a $10 billion package for COVID-19 funding that would purchase vaccines, boosters, therapeutics and tests. This partisanship is especially egregious since people all over the country are already starting to feel the effects of a lack of funding. Republicans must join with Democrats and act swiftly to approve additional funding in order to restore care, re-open shuttered testing centers, and maintain access to vaccines.
Below are headlines from around the country on the services lost thanks to the delay in funding:
FLORIDA: Only a few days are left to get a COVID vaccine for free. Many testing and treatment sites will close soon. “Residents may want to consider some immediate actions with only a few days left to get a COVID shot for free. After April 5, the uninsured will have to pay for COVID-19 vaccines out of their own pocket. ‘You have a few more days to get vaccinated or boosted at no charge so take advantage of that,’ said Mary Jo Trepka, an infectious disease epidemiologist and professor at Florida International University.” [South Florida Sun Sentinel, 3/26/22]
ARIZONA: Embry closes COVID-19 testing sites in Arizona after feds stop funding. “Embry Health says it’s closing 60 COVID-19 testing sites in the state after losing government funding that covered the costs of testing uninsured patients. The organization said it can no longer afford to continue testing uninsured residents without federal reimbursements, forcing Embry to suspend operations at dozens of testing sites. Reimbursements paid out through the Heath Resource & Services Administration ended March 22 for testing done on uninsured individuals.” [12 News, 4/4/22]
WASHINGTON: As COVID-19 funding for people without health insurance expires, state and local health agencies seek to fill the gap. “There are an estimated 465,000 people in Washington who do not have health insurance, and lawmakers in Washington have paved the way for this to change in the coming years. During the pandemic, in Spokane and Spokane Valley alone, labs, hospitals, clinics and health care providers sought more than $7.2 million in reimbursement from HRSA for providing COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccinations to people without health insurance, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” [Spokane-Review, 4/1/22]
ILLINOIS: The feds are no longer paying for COVID-19 tests for uninsured people. Here’s what that means in Illinois. “Some Illinois providers may have to cut back on COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinics for vulnerable groups as federal funding dries up — a situation that health care leaders fear could leave the state ill-prepared for another COVID-19 surge. Until now, COVID-19 tests were free to people without health insurance because a federal program reimbursed medical providers for tests given to the uninsured. But that program stopped accepting claims March 22 because Congress didn’t allocate additional money to it. That same program is slated to stop paying for COVID-19 vaccines for the uninsured on Tuesday.” [Chicago Tribune, 4/1/22]
CALIFORNIA: With federal COVID funding up in the air, Bay Area’s uninsured could be at risk. “While Test the People has not had to turn away any uninsured asymptomatic people yet, no longer being able to test this segment of the population could mean losing one critical component of controlling the spread of the virus. Many people, for instance, have been exposed and don’t have symptoms yet or won’t ever develop symptoms — but it’s still important they get tested so they don’t spread the virus to others.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 3/31/22]
CONNECTICUT: Loss of federal COVID-19 funding could mean end of key research projects, free tests and vaccines for uninsured in Connecticut. “Congress’s failure to include a fresh infusion of COVID-19 funding in President Joe Biden’s recent spending bill means no more federal money for research projects such as Grubaugh’s and no more free coronavirus tests, treatments and vaccines for millions of uninsured Americans. The potential loss of that critical funding comes at a time when experts say Connecticut is bracing for a spike in COVID-19 cases, driven by the BA.2 subvariant of omicron.” [Hartford Courant, 4/1/22]
COLORADO: Lapse in federal COVID funding could spell trouble for Colorado clinics serving uninsured. “Nobody wants to see another COVID-19 wave, but for health clinics serving low-income Coloradans, an increase in demand for testing and treatment at this point could be a financial disaster, as well as a humanitarian one. Federal funding to cover COVID-19 testing and treatment for uninsured people ended last week, and reimbursements for the staff time to vaccinate people against the virus will halt on Tuesday.” [Denver Post, 4/1/22]
INDIANA: Federal COVID relief funding winding down, Hoosiers react. “Patrick Glew of the Indiana Immunization Coalition believes that the effects of this could spread much further than just the uninsured. ‘In all likelihood, overall infection rates would increase. We know the surveillance programs would be affected, too, so we wouldn’t have a sense of all the people we were missing,’ Glew said.” [WRTV, 4/1/22]