Americans who don’t have health insurance are now being charged US$100 or more for COVID testing by some labs and may face bills for hospital treatment, and free vaccines may not be as easy for everyone to get since emergency federal aid for some pandemic programs has run out and hasn’t been renewed by U.S. Congress. Funding for the uninsured was dropped by Senate and House negotiators after Republicans opposed extending the program, a senior Democratic aide in the U.S. House told CNBC.

Meanwhile, the Health Resources and Services Administration, which runs the uninsured program for HHS, stopped accepting claims to test and treat uninsured COVID patients on March 22 due to insufficient funds. The agency stopped covering the costs to administer the vaccines for uninsured people as of April 5.

Several major testing companies are now charging the uninsured. Quest Diagnostics told CNBC uninsured people now have to pay at least US$100 for a PCR test, which is the most accurate one. Labcorp told CNBC the company is charging US$119 for its PCR testing for people who aren’t covered by insurance. Curative, which runs thousands of testing sites across 34 states, said it can no longer provide free COVID testing to the uninsured in areas of the country where state or local governments aren’t picking up the tab.

Without additional federal money, people in the U.S. will face a dramatic reduction in access to testing, particularly the uninsured; that will likely result in COVID outbreaks, according to Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

Uninsured people who become hospitalized with COVID could also face bills for their treatment now that the federal government is no longer reimbursing hospitals, according to Molly Smith with the American Hospital Association. Smith said treating someone with COVID can cost anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars if the patient ends up on a ventilator.

The uninsured are often people of color and lower-income workers who have jobs that put them at higher risks of infection because they work in industries such as retail, restaurant and grocery stores where they interact with the public and can’t stay at home, according to Jennifer Tolbert, an expert on the uninsured at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The uninsured program, established at the start of the pandemic under the Trump administration, has paid out about US$20 billion in claims since 2020.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【延长】yáncháng extend postpone beyond the original limit

【呼吸机】 hūxījī ventilator a machine that helps a person breathe by blowing oxygen into the lungs and removing carbon dioxide out of them

由于赞助疫情期间一些项目的联邦政府紧急拨款已枯竭且国会没有注入新资金，如今没有医保的美国人在接受部分实验室的核酸检测时将需要缴纳至少100美元的费用，并可能需要自费住院治疗，打免费疫苗也没那么容易了。

美国众议院的一名资深民主党助手告诉美国消费者新闻与商业频道称，由于共和党人反对继续向这一项目投钱，参众两院的谈判代表已经放弃为无医保者提供资金。

与此同时，由于资金不足，为美国卫生与公众服务部运营这一无医保项目的卫生资源和服务管理局也从3月22日起停止接收要求做核酸检测和治疗的无医保新冠患者。该机构从4月5日起不再负担无医保者注射疫苗的费用。

几家大型检测公司现在也开始对无医保者收费。奎斯特诊断公司告诉美国消费者新闻与商业频道，人们现在至少要支付100美元才能做准确度最高的核酸检测。美国实验室控股公司对美国消费者新闻与商业频道说，该公司向做核酸检测的无医保者收费119美元。在全美34个州运营数千个检测点的美国凯迪泰医疗科技有限公司表示，在那些州政府或当地政府不承担费用的地方，该公司将不再为无医保者免费提供核酸检测。

美国公共卫生协会执行董事乔治•本杰明博士指出，没有了额外的联邦政府资金支持，美国民众核酸检测机会将会剧减，尤其是无医保者，这将可能导致疫情暴发。

美国医院协会的莫莉•史密斯称，如今联邦政府不再报销医院账单，住院治疗新冠肺炎的无医保者将必须自费治疗。史密斯说，一个人治疗新冠肺炎的费用至少需数万美元，如果患者上了呼吸机，治疗费用将高达数十万美元。

凯泽家庭基金会关于无医保者的专家詹尼弗•托尔伯特说，无医保者往往是有色人种和低收入劳动者，这部分劳动者在零售、餐厅和食品杂货店等行业工作，他们需要和公众互动，不能居家工作，因此感染风险更高。

疫情之初在特朗普执政时期成立的无医保项目自2020年以来已经支付了约200亿美元。(chinadaily.com.cn)