The US plans to stop buying public covid vaccines this fall. Here’s what that means

The US will stop buying discounted covid vaccines for the entire country and shift vaccine distribution to the private market in early fall, shifting the cost to US insurers and uninsured Americans who will lose access to free vaccines.

dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s covid response coordinator, said in an interview with the UCSF Department of Medicine on Thursday that the transition to the private market would happen in the summer or early fall, though no exact date was set.

A senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services told CNBC that the fall would be a natural time to move to the private market, especially if the Food and Drug Administration selects a new strain of Covid for vaccines and asks manufacturers to prepare updated shots in advance . season of respiratory viruses.

For the past two years, the US has purchased vaccines directly from Pfizer and Modern at an average cost of about $21 per dose, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The federal government required pharmacies, doctor’s offices and hospitals to provide these injections for free to everyone, regardless of their insurance status.

But uninsured adults may have to pay for their vaccinations when Pfizer and Modern began selling injections on the private market and current federal supplies will go. There is a federal program for provide free vaccines to children whose families or caregivers cannot afford injections.

Jha said on Tuesday that the planned replacement was not final Public health emergency due to covid in May.

“The end of PHE does NOT mean that people will suddenly be unable to get the vaccines and treatments they need,” Jha wrote in a Twitter thread on Tuesday.

When the federal government no longer buys vaccines at a nationwide discount, individual health care providers will buy vaccines from vaccine manufacturers at a higher price.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC last month that the company is preparing to sell vaccines on the private market as early as this fall. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told investors during the company’s earnings call this week that it is gearing up for commercial vaccine sales in the second half of the year.

Pfizer and Moderna have said they are considering raising the price of the vaccines to somewhere around $110 to $130 per dose once the U.S. government withdraws from the vaccine program.

The uninsured will continue to have access to these 120 million doses free, but it is not clear how long the delivery will take.

“With the stockpile of vaccines and antivirals that we have, we don’t think we’re going to be in a position to transition quickly to give that up to market partners,” the HHS official said.

Although vaccine makers are preparing to sell shots on the private market later this year, it’s possible that the federal stockpile of free shots could last longer than that because uptake of the booster has been low, Cox said.

“Anyone in the U.S., regardless of citizenship status or insurance status, can get the vaccine for free while this federal supply lasts,” Cox said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., lashed out at the vaccine price hike in a letter to Moderna’s CEO last month. Sanders, who will chair the Senate Health Committee, said the price hike would cost taxpayers billions because of the impact on Medicaid and Medicare budgets.

“Perhaps most importantly, quadrupling the price will make the vaccine unavailable to millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans who will not be able to afford it,” Sanders said. “How many of these Americans will die of covid-19 because of limited access to these life-saving vaccines?”

Jha said this week that the Biden administration is committed to helping the uninsured access Covid vaccinations and treatment.

“We’re creating a whole separate set of efforts for the uninsured because the uninsured, of course, will not be able to get free vaccines and free treatments under the conventional insurance system by definition,” Jha said Thursday. “We are working on a plan regarding that.”

An HHS official said it’s one tool the federal government intends to use use is a program called Section 317 which provides funding for the free procurement and administration of vaccinations to uninsured adults.

In addition, some short term insurance policies may not pay for vaccines, Cox said. These plans were created during the Trump administration and are not required to comply with the ACA.

The ACA also allows private insurance to limit vaccine coverage to in-network providers, Cox said. People who got used to vaccinations at any pharmacy during the pandemic may have to go to a specific pharmacy in the future to get free vaccinations, she said.

Consumers could also see an increase in health insurance premiums if Pfizer and Moderna raise the price of the injections, Cox said.

Dawn O’Connell, who heads the federal office responsible for U.S. inventories, said last August that the Department of Health and Human Services expects to run out of Paxlovid by mid-2023.

Jha said Tuesday that there are still millions of doses of paxlovid and omicron boosters in U.S. stockpiles. “They will continue to be available at no cost to any American who needs them,” Jha said of the remaining federal supply.