What's the maximum you would pay for a future COVID vaccine shot?

[True Dough]

If it turns out that there's validity to this reporting and the U.S. government does decide to start charging Americans for COVID vaccinations in the months ahead, how much would you be willing/able to shell out? Or would it make you reconsider getting the vaccine at all?

The U.S. government is planning to stop paying for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, and shift the bill onto the health care industry and eventually the consumer—possibly making it one of the first countries to end the practice of giving out coronavirus vaccines for free.

The Department of Health and Human Services will hold a planning session on Aug. 30, the Wall Street Journal reported, to bring together representatives from the health care industry as well as state health departments, to discuss the commercialization of COVID-19 treatments.

The move comes a few days after White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha confirmed on Tuesday that the Biden Administration had taken steps to get past the crisis phase of the pandemic and stop buying vaccines, treatments, and tests as early as fall.

https://fortune.com/2022/08/19/free-covid-19-vaccines-may-be-coming-to-an-end-for-americans/

[flying_wahini]

1. It may be a good thing if people think they will be expensive.

They will want “their share”. It may encourage never vaxers to get one.

[JT45242]

2. Makes no sense...aca covers all standard vaccines

I understand the treatment costs passed onto consumer, especially since those with costly symptoms are mostly the unvaccinated and can't use not taking the vaccine as a criterion for payment (because of preexisting conditions clauses) but all ACA compliant plans cover normal vaccines at 100 percent: flu, shingles, meningitis, polio, hpv, mmr, etc , so it would make no sense and would be incongruous with the law.

Now, treatment is another issue. I understand that some people get vaxxed and boosted and have major illness, but that is rare. It is likely time that those who choose to risk the 'rona ride' should pay for their own ticket. Sometimes, the cost of stupidity and blind loyalty to conmen is high.

[we can do it]

5. Your insurance should cover it. People who don't bother, oh well.

And I mean ACA too.

[viva la]

11. And anyone who wants a vax and doesn't have insurance

should still get it for free.

This should be true for all public-health related vaccinations (meaning all of them-- we all benefit when others are vaccinated, even against non-communicative diseases like shingles).

[we can do it]

29. ACA is free to lower incomes.

[LudwigPastorius]

38. If you make below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level you actually aren't eligible for ACA subsidies.

But, Medicaid is supposed to be there for those folks. (unless you live in a shithole like Texas which didn't expand Medicaid to cover individuals below that level)

[Elessar Zappa]

3. No hard number but I'd pay whatever I could afford (which isn't much).

I have cystic fibrosis so I have to get the vaccine.

[Haggard Celine]

8. Maybe $5.

I don't have much money and besides,, I've already had 4 Covid shots.

[Haggard Celine]

9. Sorry, that post was intended for the OP.

[Hortensis]

4. How virulent is the strain? If it's liable to kill me, a lot.

No one should just assume this is essentially over.

[DBoon]

6. How much should an airline pilot be paid?

When an engine goes out at 35,000 feet, you empty your bank account

[former9thward]

39. Not me.

He is going to die too,

[sanatanadharma]

7. Yesterday I learned my answer to that question ...

... Wife and I spent three hours playing with the national-bureaucracy in the process of re-upping my "Man, you can stay here" card.
Our three year old national ID cards needed to be renewed. We (obviously not from here) received personalized service, at two different addresses (one closed for the day), but we came away with our renewed three-year legal residency cards.
For the bother we can expect the benefit of future vaccines being free, as have been our past four and more (common flu).

Others' economic values may vary.

[LuckyCharms]

10. Whatever I could afford at the time.

Of course, hypothetically, there would have to be some price at which it would just be too cost prohibitive, depending on your financial circumstances.

However, I would make it a priority and perhaps forego whatever else I could in order to get the vax.

This is a good and thought provoking question. In my case, I believe insurance would cover the cost, but I'm not 100% sure.

[Raftergirl]

12. Everyone on Medicaid, Medicare and ACA compliant private insurance

will have the vaccines covered 100% - just like every other vaccine.

https://www.ahip.org/resources/covid-19-vaccine-faqs

But to answer the question as if they would not be covered I’d say I can afford to pay what it would cost.

I pay a $120 copay twice a year for a Prolia shot. If it wasn’t covered it would be approximately $2k a year and I would pay it because I don’t want to get osteoporosis. But I doubt the cost of the vaccine would come even close to that.

Iirc, when I asked the cost of the first shingles vaccine when I was not 60, so it wasn’t covered, the cost was $60.

[liberal_mama]

18. I'm on Medicare and my doctor billed me $180 for a Tetanus shot

I didn't get injured, it was just a routine vaccination that you are supposed to get every 10 years.

[True Dough]

20. That's hard to justify!

I don't know what it costs to produce that vial of insulin but I'd guess no more than $10 to $20, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's much less than that. I hate profiteering!

[liberal_mama]

30. Yeah, when I called to ask about it, they were like, "Some of it is a fee to administer the

injection." I had a flu shot the same day and they didn't charge me for that. Yikes, I'm never getting 2 shots in a day again. I always get side effects and my arms swell up. I could barely move my arms for a week.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. It probably depends on the current statistics...

... regarding lethality and other factors.

I recently recovered from an Omicron infection (probably the BA.5 variant), by the way, despite being vaccinated four times with Moderna -- i.e., two booster shots. And my symptoms were indeed pretty mild, as I anticipated based on reports. But the previous vaccines probably helped my immune system counteract it too.

I got careless, not wearing a mask inside a Wal-Mart as I planned to be in-and-out quickly (only buying some screws to fix my mailbox) , and I ended up walking behind a SCREAMING special-needs adult who was repeatedly telling his exhausted-looking mother that he didn't feel good. I'm not sure that I caught it from him, of course, but I can't believe I was so careless. He kept yelling that he DIDN'T FEEL GOOD, and his voice was cracking like someone who might've had an upper respiratory infection (or perhaps from so much screaming?), yet I walked behind them for awhile like "la dee da"!

[Midnight Writer]

14. Maybe another State issue? What you pay may depend on where you live.

Some blue States may make provisions.

Red States? Especially ones that refused to expand Medicaid? It would probably be political suicide for those State governments to even admit to a health crisis, let alone address one.

[BigMin28]

15. I struggle

to pay for a flu shot, but I find a way. I live in Texas. ACA doesn't help millions of us.

[TheRealNorth]

16. Because I am still relatively young and healthy....

And I have a job with sick leave, I would probably say $30.

[brooklynite]

17. The Government isn't "charging" anything...

Its no longer subsidizing the cost of the vaccines.

[True Dough]

21. That's so helpful!

[brooklynite]

32. There are no Government subsidies for flu vaccines...

Virtually nobody ends up paying for them.

[True Dough]

33. There are quite a few responses in this thread alone

that suggest payment for various vaccines is a reality for some, and a deal-breaker for others, so I'll continue to keep an open mind.

[brooklynite]

35. FWIW - I got all of my COVID vaxes for free at a City public health clinic

[True Dough]

36. FWIW, the article cited in the OP

is about the future potential cost COVID vaccines.

[brooklynite]

37. ...which I expect public clinics will provide for free.

Whether the FEDERAL Government pays for them or not.

[liberal_mama]

19. I can't have any more mRNA vaccines because I had side effects so I've only had 2 doses

If the current vaccine actually prevented most transmission, I might put up with the side effects and get the booster, but this hasn't been the case with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. However, if it turns out that Novavax will prevent transmission I'd be willing to pay $100 or more so I no longer had to worry about getting Covid and long Covid. As an immune compromised person, that would be worth a lot to me.

[dweller]

22. CVS charges $79

if you don’t have insurance… I don’t, so that’s prohibitive for me
I’m one booster short, was told health dept doesn’t charge but haven’t been there yet
😐



✌🏻

[Polybius]

23. $0

Free or not me.

[IcyPeas]

24. wonder what the rest of the world pays?

after all, we gotta keep those pharma CEOs happy.

[True Dough]

25. Yours is a good question

I've found a few articles on the amount that countries have paid for their supply of COVID vaccine, but not how much some of those countries are charging their citizens.


[link:https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n281|

[link:https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/analysis/covid-19-vaccine-pricing-varies-country-company/|

[Dysfunctional]

26. VA gives free Covid-19 vaccines to all veterans,

also their spouse, surviving spouse, caregiver, and those with CHAMPVA.

[True Dough]

27. Good to know

and that's the way it should be!

[Dysfunctional]

28. The VA needs to let veterans know. Caregivers whether family or not can get free CHAMPVA

which includes free meds by mail. There is no pre-existing conditions exclusion. Supplemental insurance is fairly inexpensive but has a 6-month exclusion.

[kelly1mm]

31. I know this is an unpopular stance but $0 as I have not got any COVID vaccines and don't plan on

getting any.

[Celerity]

40. Why are you an anti-vaxxer? Unless there is a LEGIT medical reason, it's a really poor life choice.

[kelly1mm]

41. I am not an anti-vaxxer. I have all the common childhood vaccines that a child of the 70's

would have and had more in the military during Gulf War I. I was skeptical of the vaccine at first for the same reasons VP Harris was - I did not trust Trump, so I let some time go by to see what, if any side effects would show up. Then the narrative kept changing in that originally the vaccine would keep you from getting covid or spreading it and this was a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Well soon after that was proven untrue and basically now the narrative is basically that a vaccine and periodic boosters will generally keep you from being hospitalized but won't keep you from getting covid, even multiple times.

So far as I know I have not had covid. I wore a mask indoors when it was required and when it was posted even when not required but basically I did not change my life in any other way. It is certainly possible I have had mild covid (possibly several times) but I have had no symptoms that I know of.

[Celerity]

42. The bottom line: the vax massively reduces your chances of severe illness and death, and it

helps mitigate transmissibility to others if you do contract Covid.

Vaccines have never been designed to have the main objective of stopping all transmission of the various diseases they address.


You are making a poor choice IMHO, one that I deffo consider qualifies you as being anti-vax in terms of the Covid vaccines.

[kelly1mm]

43. I an not anti-vaccines and do not try and tell other people that they should not (or should)

take the covid vaccine. I suppose you could say I am anti-covid vaccines for myself only - again I do not discourage others from making the choice that is right for them. If that makes me an anti-vaxxer in your eyes then so be it. I am not really paying attention any more to covid and have accepted that it will most likely be an endemic disease going forward.

[Ms. Toad]

34. This is a bit misleading,

Since the cost of the vaccine is already charged to your insurance company if you have insurance. (Same for tests.)

So the question is limited to people who don't have insurance and/or the amount of the copay.