[News] What the COVID-19 Relief Package Means for Health and Health Care

[rlex]

 

THE $1.9 TRILLION COVID-19 relief package cleared by Congress and set to be signed by President Joe Biden will provide Americans with $1,400 stimulus payments but also includes a raft of health- and health care-related provisions.

The package, dubbed the American Rescue Plan, passed after Democrats were forced to abandon an attempt to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 and amid back-and-forth in the party over an increase to federal unemployment benefits. Yet provisions that would provide funding to support COVID-19 vaccination and testing efforts, as well as expand premium tax credits to more people purchasing health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, easily made it through both the House and Senate.

Here's a look at some key provisions on health and health care contained in the measure.

Vaccines: The bill includes billions of dollars for COVID-19 efforts such as vaccine education and operating clinics and mobile units.

Under that umbrella, $7.5 billion will go to the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for activities such as promoting, distributing and monitoring vaccines. Another $1 billion will go to the CDC for vaccine awareness and engagement activities, while $600 million will go to the Indian Health Service for vaccine-related efforts. Another $500 million will go to the Food and Drug Administration to aid in activities such as development and surveillance of vaccines and therapeutics.

Currently, people on Medicaid do not have to pay for vaccines, and the measure seeks to ensure that the federal government will reimburse states for vaccinating Medicaid recipients at 100%.

Testing: The package provides some $50 billion to expand COVID-19 testing through efforts such as implementing a national testing strategy for contact tracing, surveillance and mitigation.

Another $500 million will go to the CDC to help track COVID-19 hot spots and emerging COVID-19 variants.