Wall Street Journal: “Medicare wouldn’t cover the cost of administering any coronavirus vaccine approved for emergency use, leaving Trump administration officials exploring options to quickly fix the government’s plan to make the vaccine free for all Americans. Lawmakers in March passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, which ensures free coronavirus vaccine coverage, including no out-of-pocket costs for people on Medicare. But Medicare doesn’t cover costs for drugs approved under emergency-use designations.”
“The Food and Drug Administration authorizes certain drugs for emergency use to provide speedy access to treatments for serious diseases during a health crisis. Standards for emergency-use authorization aren’t as high as they are for its typical drug approvals. Trump administration officials recently came to the conclusion that Medicare’s exclusion of emergency-use drug costs could leave millions of people paying out-of-pocket for vaccines the government intends to make free, according to three people familiar with the matter. About 44 million people, or about 15% of the U.S. population, are covered by Medicare.”