no. hospitals wont send patients a bill.
hospitals charge the government/insurance company.
insurance companies do allow for vaccines for free
Yeah that's not how it works in the US. Hospitals (if someone is unlucky enough to get the vaccine in a hospital) will definitely send massive bills for everything except perhaps the vaccine itself, so $10k - $10 = $9990 billed to the patient. Pharmacies that usually do vaccines for flu etc often subsidize those as loss leaders... not sure if that's going to work for COVID-19 though.
Insurance companies don't "allow" shit. If by some miracle they make it "free" it will be rolled into next year's premiums....
Some things Franky should really shut up on. This is why the US cannot succeed with socialized medicine, the established power structures would bleed people dry. It'd be 120% for them not for the people.
Regardless, what Trump said was the vaccine would be free, but when I saw the list of operations that would be dispensing it, like CVS and Walgreens, it's hard to believe that. Maybe if you present an insurance card, then it's 0 copay. Maybe. But a lot of people are never, every going to pay 35 or 50$ or any sum for this flu shot.
I mean when the sitting President of the United States is saying that the vaccine should be free, he should ensure that it can be fully free for people. Free from any administrative expenses or anything along those lines. CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and so on are going to benefit from the government not only paying for them to administer this vaccine but they're providing an influx of people to enter your store. Free marketing which should translate into other sales for a good amount of people as well.
But we'll see what this roll out looks like in the coming weeks / months. Would hate to see certain groups left out just because they can't pay the administrative fees for some BS paperwork requirements.
