(AmericanProsperity.com) – The CDC is working on releasing an updated COVID vaccine before the fall and winter season, but due to the halt of the CDC’s COVID Vaccine Access Program, many Americans that are uninsured may not qualify.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had a Bridge Access Program that provided free COVID vaccines to adults without health insurance or for those whose health insurance didn’t cover the vaccine.
Due to federal funding cuts, this program is no longer, and this could affect many Americans without health insurance. Americans that are covered by Medicaid, Medicare, or private insurance will receive the updated vaccine. However, there are over twenty million Americans that will be unable to get the vaccine due to this program cut.
Dr. Nathaniel Hupert, an associate professor of population health sciences and of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, said, “The timing is really unfortunate, because we don’t yet have the 2024-25 versions of the COVID shots generally available yet, so the Bridge program will end before those are available to uninsured individuals.”
With this said, the CDC has allocated over sixty million dollars of unused vaccine funding to help buy COVID vaccines for uninsured or underinsured adults.
Dr. Raynard Washington, public health director of Mecklenburg County, said that being able to purchase enough vaccines will be a challenge.
“Even if 10% of those adults wanted to receive a vaccine or needed to receive a vaccine, that still would be several hundred thousand dollars of cost that we would not be able to carry,” he said.
Last year, Pfizer and Moderna said the cost of their vaccines were over one hundred dollars per dose and this year the prices could be even higher.
Washington said, “People have to make a choice about whether or not they cover the cost of health care or other basic needs.”
Copyright 2024, AmericanProsperity.com
