The US government has ordered insurers in several states to waive costs regarding testing for COVID-19, which currently stands at costing $3,200 for anyone who is uninsured. Insurers in California, Maryland, Vermont and New York have been ordered by their respective state governments to waive the costs associated with COVID-19 testing.
Despite this, there is uncertainty surrounding the waiving of fees on a federal level, although the Trump administration has hinted at the prospect of this multiple times. As of Friday, March 20, 2020, over 250,000 people had been infected worldwide with over 11,000 dead. The US is quickly rising on the charts in terms of infections and deaths.
Many libertarians blamed the problem as being rooted in the fact that many people who could show symptoms of the novel 2019 coronavirus that included fever, shortness of breath and dry cough, would refuse to go to the doctor to have their symptoms checked out due to high insurance and hospitalization costs.
To make matters worse, while some states have ordered the testing of COVID-19 to be free of charge to patients, such as Minnesota, there are still costs that are currently not being waived by insurance as it pertains to treatment, effectively being able to give the CDC information regarding a tally of the number of patients that have been infected throughout the US, but not treatment for the actual patients themselves.
The fact that this is the reality for many Americans means that they will hesitate to get tested and be forced to hospitalization or quarantine, knowing the bills could possibly cost them hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Despite this, some government programs like Medicare and Medicaid are going to cover the costs of test kit. The only state so far that will provide comprehensive coverage is New Mexico, although it is the exception and not the rule. Out of all the high GDP per capita industrialized nations, the US is doomed to be hit hardest due to the lack of a publicly funded healthcare system.