Right now, the United States is experiencing the second-largest Covid-19 surge ever.1
This was somewhat expected as winter drove more people indoors and many celebrated the holidays in groups — plus, a highly infectious variant of the virus rapidly spread as fewer people received the latest vaccine.
But what’s especially concerning is the fact that this time around, people in the U.S. have less resources to prevent and treat this deadly illness than when the pandemic started. When the Covid-19 pandemic began, the federal government stepped in and issued a Public Health Emergency, providing free Covid-19 tests, vaccines, and treatment to everyone. It was a glimmer of what we could experience under a single-payer health care system like Medicare for All.
But since the Public Health Emergency ended last May, many people across the country are facing new costs and hurdles for Covid-19 tests and treatment. Once households hit their limit of four free tests from the government, many are stuck paying upfront for tests — and while insurance companies are still required to reimburse up to $12 per test, the onus is on patients to make those claims in order to get their money back.
What’s even worse is that the Covid-19 anti-viral drug Paxlovid, which was previously free through the government, now costs patients nearly $1,400 per 5-day course — despite it costing Pfizer just $13 to manufacture.2 That’s a 10,000% markup, yet another example of Big Pharma’s greedy price-gouging.
We also can’t forget that since the Public Health Emergency expired, more than 15 million people have lost Medicaid coverage nationwide.3 And that number is still growing. So while this pandemic is still raging on, many no longer have the health insurance needed to deal with it.
All of this goes to show the faults of our for-profit health care system, and the urgent need for Medicare for All. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to expose the existing patchwork system for what it is — ineffective, inefficient, and unjustifiably expensive for our patients and for our country.
Together, we must continue to build the movement to achieve health care justice for everyone through Medicare for All. By sharing this fact sheet with your personal network, you’ll help us do just that.
In solidarity,
Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All
Sources:
1. “The US is starting 2024 in its second-largest COVID surge ever, experts say,” Today, January 5, 2024
https://www.today.com/health/news/covid-wave-2024-rcna132529
2. “The estimated production cost of Paxlovid: $13. Its new list price: $1400,” MSNBC, October 23, 2023
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/pfizer-covid-drug-paxlovid-price-rcna121469
3. “Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker,” KFF, January 22, 2024
https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker/
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