The U.S. government paid around $10 billion in the early years of the pandemic to develop and purchase Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine as part of Operation Warp Speed. So far, any American who wants the shot has paid nothing out-of-pocket for it — the federal government has footed the bill.
But once it’s time to switch to the next version of the vaccine (expected to be tailored to whatever strain of the virus is circulating later this year), individual patients will have to pay for the shot if their health insurance doesn’t cover it. The proposed price: roughly $130 per dose.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, for one, is outraged.
“How is the CEO of this company thanking the taxpayers of this country who are responsible for making him and his colleagues incredibly rich?” Sanders asked rhetorically on the Senate floor recently. “He is thanking them by proposing to quadruple the price.”
Read more at NPR.org
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