You get 8 free at home coronavirus tests a month
 

It was announced today that insurance companies have to pay for eight at-home coronavirus tests per member per month. Any thoughts on how much Medicare premiums go up next year?

Well, they carved out 86.5 billion for the tests so they are going to get paid

Crazy talk.

Why..?

:bigbow::bigbow::bigbow::bigbow:

WHY is correct. Unvaxed and for legitimate reasons (not that I need your permission).

Hubby tested ONCED, I have not been. No problems, no issues, no reason.

Even if either of us were to become symptomatic with the variant de jour, we would monitor pulse ox levels at fingertips and if issues required, seek treatment. Otherwise, we would do what we did when we got through Adenovirus, H1N1; the Swine Flu; the Hong Kong flu in the 70's....not a single healthcare worker had a single vaccine, inoculation, hell truth be told, we did not even take anything but the standard precautions. Feel blessed with the multiple exposures I have by being a military dependent, member and contract nurse after retirement.

The insurance companies don't have to worry much because even **IF** you wanted ONE you couldn't find it. :)

And then there is this:
Americans on Medicare won’t be eligible for the federal reimbursement plan, though Medicare already covers Covid-19 tests conducted in labs, and Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program plans are already required to fully reimburse the costs of FDA-approved tests.
Biden Requires Insurance Companies To Cover Free At-Home Covid Tests Starting This Weekend

Well congratulations for not being one of the 50,000,000+ who have tested positive, one of the 830,000+ who have died, one of the 145,000+ currently hospitalized, or one of the 1,500+ who won't live to see another day. Clearly, this program isn't for you. But, that will free up resources for those who haven't been as fortunate or who won't be as fortunate in the future.

Oh, and those who are vaccinated will very likely not need to worry about symptoms, ox levels, or where to seek treatment.

Yes, my question as well----WHO will pay for the 8 "free" tests/month that the "insurance company" has to cover????? I'll give everyone 3 guesses, but you'll only need one.

I paid into Medicare for over 50 years while I was working so I was really surprised at how much “free healthcare” cost after I quit working! Maybe we should have “free healthcare”for everyone. At least I don't have to pay for social security anymore!

If only people would only get tested if they have symptoms, instead of 'because they can,' then the cost and shortage of kits would not be problem.
Latest test results are almost a social talking point now, just like the weather.:ohdear:

100% correct----If it were up to me I wouldn't allow anyone who is asymptomatic get tested, with the exception of travel requirements or plans to host a cocktail party indoors for 500 unmasked immunosuppressed transplant recipients.

While some people are getting tested because they genuinely don't want to take the chance of spreading the virus, most are just curious and will not do anything differently based on the results (just an opinion, it may be wrong)

But consider this---the asymptomatic people who test positive are NOT coughing, NOT spewing out virus, so unless they plan on exhaling forcefully 3 inches from someone's face, they are at minimal risk to spread COVID. Then, if that person is fully vaccinated and boosted, and the other party the same, the risk of transmission is very low, even with omicron. If they are both masked, it is close to zero

So, IMHO, testing just for the sake of testing on asymptomatic persons is a huge waste of time and money. Heck, even California is sending COVID positive healthcare workers back to work.

You missed the point poster came from medical background, probably exposed to more in a month than most people in their lifetime.

I worked from the beginning, exposed 12plus hours a day, with the same mask for weeks, not tested the entire time. Unvaccinated, (there wasn’t any), and yet majority survived. Like me many came back after retirement to help the short staff.

Many healthcare staff didn’t get tested, hospitalized, or die, but we just attribute that to the multiple of germs, flu, and Covid that is introduced in our system for decades.

We see many who are vaccinated, and really don’t treat them any different than those unvaccinated.

First hand experience.
Family member was working with a person who tested positive.
As a precaution the family member got tested. Surprise? They tested positive. No symptoms.....none.....not even a sniffle.
They are vaccinated and boosted.

Had they not been exposed and never tested, they would be going about their business as usual.

I am sure this is not an isolated incident!!

Why are so many people in orange county waiting in line for up to 5 hours to get a test. I don't understand why there are so many and what their reasons are. I can see if you are going somewhere that requires a negative test but other than that I don't know.

I can not wait to get my home tests in July. After Chron fades away naturally in March.

:bigbow:

Don't worry, the tests won't be wasted. Since about 1/3 of the US population is still unvaccinated, there will be plenty of Corona mutations to go around.

I am absolutely certain the FBI/CIA and Federal Government will not do anything bad with all the DNA samples they are receiving and recording from all the willing participants in the "How can we get everyone's DNA voluntarily contest?"

Why was there no test panic last year when the fear of the day was the killer delta?

We went from little testing and long vaccine lines in 2020/2021 and now with almost 50% vaccinated long, long testing lines and now authorizing 8 per month.

Totally and completely ridiculous!

Lemmings!

I have 5 members of my family who are vaccinated, but still tested positive for Covid. Three were mild cases, but 2 of them are struggling 13 days into it. Oh, by the way, their O2 SATS dipped into the high 80's and low 90's.

I get they will reimburse you up to 8per mth...but do you need to meet that deductible 1st, and will this submission need a claim form and any supporting paperwork....yeah...who's gonna bother -for maybe 15$...oh wait, that too will have a cap.....oh brother we are screwed yet again....

What makes you think the mutations are coming from only the unvaccinated? Anyone can get it and spread it. Has nothing to do with whether or not those that test positive show symptoms or not, or are vaccinated or not. There have been asymptomatic since the beginning of this.

I would say those who test positive and are fully vaxed (with booster) are more likely to have mild or no symptoms....are significantly less likely to need to be hospitalized or die.

Like it or not the unvaccinated are the more vulnerable to more serious outcomes.

This ongoing debate to vax or not has approached the flu level of support or not. Funny there is not a lot of dialogue about those vaccinations. Obviously no advantage for agenda promotion.

Reimbursed (from retail store) tests aren't available to Medicare recipients but I wonder if you have a "medicare advantage plan" they will cover it.

You are not considering the government mandates being forced by OSHA if you happen to be "unvaccinated". That requires a weekly test. Supposedly not to be enforced until Feb 9, if not affected by the Supreme Court.

Where do you get them?
 

That's terrific. But you have to find one to use one. All the pharmacies, Walmart, Publix, etc. are sold out. If you get one, it's on a catch as catch can basis. Pretty disgraceful so far as I am concerned.

It’s free line.

So if I have no symptom’s test today at noon negative, I go out on town and come home at 6 pm do I need to test again? O wait what a lot tomorrow, the next day, next week….. we now live in panic world.

Florida has no limit on price gouging COVID-19 tests

Surprisingly to get into the Supreme Court you must be vaccinated, masked and have a negative test to get admitted. Will rule on mandate from questioning it seems like the Supreme Court will reject the Administrations argument. I other words “screw everyone but us”.

I also read that Medicare is NOT part of this government program. Only private insurance companies.

What did you find out when you did a google?

So much mis-information spread on Faux news and social media, and people bought into that nonsense. Maybe people finally got it through their heads that the virus is deadly, after over 3/4 of a million people have died.

Why did you start this?

Fake numbers, fake news. Check out the global mortality rate over the last 4 years. It has stayed consistently at .76%. So much for a contrived global "planned demic". What you should be asking is how many of these lives could have been spared by making Hydroxochloroquine and Ivermectin readily available.

more added nonsense, America is going broke and people just stay on this band wagon. when did you test every time, you had a cough, a runny nose or a body ache.

Well, I was thinking "sheep", but lemmings also fits.

Craziness abounds. I was reading the other day where several states are now allowing COVID-positive workers to remain on their jobs in health care settings if they're showing "no or only mild symptoms". So does someone wanna take a stab at explaining just how firing totally healthy people who refuse to get vaccinated and then allowing people WITH COVID to work around sick and vulnerable people, makes any sense?

Pure fear and control. Nothing is free. Some working person is paying for this.

Bingo!

In Minnesota the media is pleading for people NOT to go to the E.R. or Urgent Care for tests. They're overflowing with people who are NOT sick but who get tested anyway, and apparently repeatedly, for COVID. It has reached the point where legitimately sick people cannot get emergency services.

Ever see a herd of animals panic and run blindly, all in the same direction? Sheep will do that, among other herd animals. They charge blindly toward what they envision as safety.

Apparently human sheep are pretty much the same.