{"id":466,"date":"2022-12-07T10:11:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T10:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=466"},"modified":"2022-12-07T10:11:39","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T10:11:39","slug":"paxlovid-has-been-free-so-far-next-year-sticker-shock-awaits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=466","title":{"rendered":"Paxlovid Has Been Free So Far. Next Year, Sticker Shock Awaits."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nearly 6 million Americans have taken Paxlovid for free, courtesy of the federal government. The Pfizer pill has helped prevent many people infected with covid-19 from being hospitalized<\/a> or dying, and it may even reduce the risk<\/a> of developing long covid. But the government plans to stop footing the bill within months, and millions of people who are at the highest risk of severe illness and are least able to afford the drug \u2014 the uninsured and seniors \u2014 may have to pay the full price.<\/p>\n

And that means fewer people will get the potentially lifesaving treatments, experts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the numbers will go way down,\u201d said Jill Rosenthal, director of public health policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. A bill for several hundred dollars or more would lead many people to decide the medication isn\u2019t worth the price, she said.<\/p>\n

In response to the unprecedented public health crisis caused by covid, the federal government spent billions of dollars on developing new vaccines and treatments, to swift success: Less than a year after the pandemic was declared, medical workers got their first vaccines. But as many people have refused the shots and stopped wearing masks, the virus still rages and mutates. In 2022 alone, 250,000 Americans have died<\/a> from covid, more than<\/a> from strokes or diabetes.<\/p>\n

But soon the Department of Health and Human Services will stop supplying covid treatments, and pharmacies will purchase and bill for them the same way they do for antibiotic pills or asthma inhalers. Paxlovid is expected to hit the private market in mid-2023, according to HHS plans shared in an October meeting with state health officials and clinicians. Merck\u2019s Lagevrio, a less-effective covid treatment pill, and AstraZeneca\u2019s Evusheld, a preventive therapy for the immunocompromised, are on track to be commercialized sooner, sometime in the winter.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government has so far purchased 20 million courses<\/a> of Paxlovid, priced at about $530 each, a discount for buying in bulk that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla called \u201creally very attractive\u201d to the federal government in a July earnings call. The drug will cost far more on the private market, although in a statement to KHN, Pfizer declined to share the planned price. The government will also stop paying for the company\u2019s covid vaccine next year \u2014 those shots will quadruple in price<\/a>, from the discount rate the government pays of $30 to about $120.<\/p>\n

Bourla told investors in November that he expects the move will make Paxlovid and its covid vaccine \u201ca multibillion-dollars franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 9 in 10 people<\/a> dying from the virus now are 65 or older. Yet federal law restricts Medicare Part D \u2014 the prescription drug program that covers nearly 50 million seniors<\/a> \u2014 from covering the covid treatment pills. The medications are meant for those most at risk of serious illness, including seniors.<\/p>\n

Paxlovid and the other treatments are currently available under an emergency use authorization from the FDA, a fast-track review used in extraordinary situations. Although Pfizer applied for full approval<\/a> in June, the process can take anywhere from several months to years. And Medicare Part D can\u2019t cover any medications without that full stamp of approval.<\/p>\n

Paying out-of-pocket would be \u201ca substantial barrier\u201d for seniors on Medicare \u2014 the very people who would benefit most from the drug, wrote federal health experts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a public health perspective, and even from a health care capacity and cost perspective, it would just defy reason to not continue to make these drugs readily available,\u201d said Dr. Larry Madoff, medical director of Massachusetts\u2019 Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences. He\u2019s hopeful that the federal health agency will find a way to set aside unused doses for seniors and people without insurance.<\/p>\n

In mid-November, the White House requested that Congress approve an additional $2.5 billion for covid therapeutics and vaccines to make sure people can afford the medications when they\u2019re no longer free. But there\u2019s little hope it will be approved \u2014 the Senate voted that same day to end<\/a> the public health emergency and denied similar requests in recent months.<\/p>\n

Many Americans have already faced hurdles just getting a prescription<\/a> for covid treatment. Although the federal government doesn\u2019t track<\/a> who\u2019s gotten the drug, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study<\/a> using data from 30 medical centers found that Black and Hispanic patients with covid were much less likely to receive Paxlovid than white patients. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races.) And when the government is no longer picking up the tab, experts predict that these gaps by race, income, and geography will widen.<\/p>\n

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