It comes after Congress failed to reach an agreement on new COVID relief funding in a broad budget bill President Joe Biden signed last week.
Some counties in Ohio provide free testing, so folks should check with their local health departments on how to get one. Individuals can also still order free at-home tests from the federal government online at covidtests.gov.
Medical providers often rely on federal programs before turning to local ones, said Tiffany Mattingly, Vice President, Clinical Strategies at The Health Collaborative in Cincinnati. If federal programs dry up, she said it could put new strain on local resources.
“Many of those programs had a specific amount of dollars that they expected to last them a certain period of time,” Mattingly said. “And those dollars may be utilized quicker now that you can’t build up to that intermediary program.”
Mattingly said most public health departments will still provide vaccines at no cost. She recommends anyone without health insurance search for federally qualified health centers when looking for treatment. The website to search is https://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/tool.
The White House says the Uninsured Program is just one virus-related program that will be scaled back due to a lack of new funding. In a statement, the White House said the federal government has no more funding for additional monoclonal antibody treatments and will cut state allocations by more than 30%.
The statement also says “the federal government does not have adequate resources to purchase enough booster vaccine doses for all Americans, if additional doses are needed.”
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