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.