Xavier Becerra, the secretary of well being and human providers, hinted on Tuesday that the Biden administration could must ask Congress for extra money to combat the coronavirus pandemic, relying on the scope and severity of a possible new wave of infections fueled by the Omicron variant.
Throughout a round-table dialogue with reporters that centered closely on testing, Mr. Becerra famous that whereas the administration has some flexibility to maneuver cash round, of the $50 billion Congress has allotted for testing, about $10 billion is left. President Biden has made expanded testing a centerpiece of the winter pandemic technique he just lately introduced.
“Are we going to have greater than $10 billion value of wants and prices on Covid, particularly with reference to testing?” Mr. Becerra mentioned. “There’s a powerful likelihood we’ll, relying on the place Omicron takes us.” He added that his division’s specialists have been attempting to make projections to find out whether or not extra funding can be essential — earlier than the necessity turns into pressing.
“The president mentioned we’ve acquired to remain forward of this, so we don’t need to be asking Congress for cash after we all know we want it,” he mentioned.
With the pandemic heading into its third yr, and Omicron on the horizon, a lot of the cash that Congress has allotted for coronavirus response has been spent. The $2 trillion CARES Act was signed by former President Donald J. Trump in March 2020, and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan was signed by Mr. Biden in March 2021. Each have been geared toward boosting the economic system, in addition to addressing People’ well being wants throughout the disaster.
The rescue plan included $14 billion to hurry up vaccine distribution, and $130 billion to assist colleges reopen safely, amongst different coronavirus-related provisions. However the plan, and the CARES Act earlier than it, went into impact earlier than the emergence of the Delta variant this summer time, which prompted hospitalizations and deaths to spike, including pressure to an already overburdened well being care system.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has been monitoring Omicron instances, which have now turned up in additional than 20 states. “Even when most infections are gentle, a extremely transmissible variant may lead to sufficient instances to overwhelm well being methods,” company officers wrote in a report final week.
Whereas early proof has begun to emerge about Omicron, it stays unclear how typically instances result in hospitalizations or deaths. The variant appears to have the ability to partially dodge the physique’s immune defenses, however it has but to be decided to what diploma vaccination and prior an infection could safeguard people from extreme illness.
On Thursday, the Division of Well being and Human Providers introduced it was releasing $9 billion in “supplier reduction fund” funds to bolster hospitals and different well being care suppliers which have skilled income losses due to the pandemic. Greater than 69,000 suppliers in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., and eight territories, will obtain funds.
In September, the division introduced that it could spend a complete of $25.5 billion on the hassle. That features the $9 billion launched on Thursday and $8.5 billion launched final week to rural well being care suppliers. The rest of the funds might be disbursed in 2022.
When he just lately introduced his winter technique, Mr. Biden vowed to combat the pandemic with “science and velocity.” He mentioned that individuals who purchase at-home speedy coronavirus assessments would quickly be eligible for reimbursement from their insurers, and that to make sure entry for the uninsured, the federal authorities would distribute 25 million assessments to neighborhood well being facilities and rural clinics.
After the announcement, administration officers mentioned individuals shopping for the assessments must request reimbursement, reasonably than being reimbursed within the pharmacy as when filling prescriptions. Some public well being specialists and shopper advocates have balked at that. Mr. Becerra mentioned Thursday that his division was nonetheless determining the particulars. Plenty of states have been distributing free at-home assessments, together with Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Colorado and Ohio.
Different international locations have spent extra closely on speedy testing. In Britain, residents can use a authorities web site to order free speedy assessments for house use. Germany invested a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to create a community of 15,000 speedy testing websites. The US has as an alternative centered public buying on vaccines, and efforts to encourage their uptake.
On Tuesday, Mr. Becerra pledged, “We’re going to ensure that the American individuals have entry to assessments they usually don’t must pay out of pocket.”
“How that precisely will get accomplished, we work with our group to make it occur,” he added. “We’re hoping that will probably be accomplished in a manner that’s as clean as attainable.”
