The Golden State’s guaranteed coverage of COVID tests and reimbursements from insurance providers kicks in when the federal COVID emergency ends Thursday.
If your medicine cabinet is low on COVID tests,
California’s state public health emergency ended Feb. 28, and on Friday the World Health Organization declared the end to the COVID-19 global emergency. The WHO announcement, along with the end of the U.S. and California emergencies, marks an important moment in the devastating pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions of people worldwide.
“We’ve basically gone from a system where there’s been universal coverage of COVID vaccines, testing and treatments,” said Jen Kates, senior vice president at KFF, a nonprofit focused on health policy. “Now we’re going back to the regular system, which for tests and treatments means cost-sharing,” and protections vary widely based on your state and type of insurance.
For example, the federal government still has reserves of oral antiviral medications used to treat COVID, including Paxlovid, which will continue to be free to patients and providers until those doses run out. At that point, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and health care providers will take over the supply and costs.
“In compliance with California law, COVID-19 vaccines, home antigen and PCR testing, and treatment will continue to be provided and covered at no cost for the next 6 months,” Kaiser Permanente said in an emailed statement. But the insurer did not provide details on what would happen after Nov. 11.
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