Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Aug 26, 2024 21:43:39 GMT
Americans To Receive ‘Free’ Covid-19 Tests Again, But Are They Really Free? - Published Aug 26, 2024
Turbo-capitalists hate state-funded healthcare costs: Surprise surprise.
The Biden Administration announced that, starting in September, each U.S. household can order four Covid-19 test kits, mailed to homes free of charge. But are these tests really free?
This is the sixth round of free Covid-19 tests offered by the Administration, following the distribution of 1.8 billion such tests. So far, no information is available on how much the Administration paid for each test, how many tests ended up in landfills, or the details of the bidding process for these gigantic government contracts.
The timing of the supposedly free tests is convenient. Two days earlier, the Food and Drug Administration approved and granted emergency-use authorization for updated Covid-19 vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged everyone 6 months and older to get them. Fear of Covid-19 remains, as school closures have already begun.
While people don’t have to pay for these tests at the pharmacy, everyone—whether they use them or not—pays for them through taxes, and the tests cost more and offer fewer choices than we would get if we paid for them on our own. As I wrote in February, distributing free Covid-19 tests compromises fiscal unaccountability to taxpayers.
This is a typical example of government-centered healthcare decisionmaking. Americans have no right to know the prices the government pay for free healthcare products and services or to reject them and get the money back; they merely have the obligation to fund them.
Americans also have no right to choose alternatives if they dislike those offered by the government, which crowds out innovative efforts to pursue cheaper and more patient-friendly tests. Indeed, the over-engineered free tests are more costly to produce and less intuitive to use than the simple $1 versions available in European markets. What individuals want or like does not matter; the government has already chosen for all of us.
When the government controls the healthcare dollars earned by Americans, it arbitrarily allocates them to areas deemed important by those in government. If spending on free Covid-19 tests leaves little funding available for other health needs, so be it. Individual patient choices are lost when the government decides.
Government-centered healthcare decision-making can invite large, politically connected corporations to enter exclusive, nontransparent contracts, eliminate competitors through regulation, and perpetuate a state-corporate alliance nearly impossible for market competition to challenge. Taxpayers and patients ultimately lose.
How about a patient-centered approach? When their revenues come from patients instead of the government, companies must focus on what patients want and need. Expanding the pool of approved test vendors and removing the government from the Covid-19 test market would allow competition to drive down prices and provide a variety of offerings that satisfy the diverse tastes of patients, ultimately improving the test affordability and satisfaction for everyone.
Free Covid-19 tests have taught us an expensive lesson: the free offerings from the government often come at hefty prices to Americans. Government-centered decision making can be anticompetitive, anti-innovation, and compromise the best interests of taxpayers and patients. By preserving our own decision rights, we might have the best chance to achieve healthcare affordability.
Turbo-capitalists hate state-funded healthcare costs: Surprise surprise.
The Biden Administration announced that, starting in September, each U.S. household can order four Covid-19 test kits, mailed to homes free of charge. But are these tests really free?
This is the sixth round of free Covid-19 tests offered by the Administration, following the distribution of 1.8 billion such tests. So far, no information is available on how much the Administration paid for each test, how many tests ended up in landfills, or the details of the bidding process for these gigantic government contracts.
The timing of the supposedly free tests is convenient. Two days earlier, the Food and Drug Administration approved and granted emergency-use authorization for updated Covid-19 vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged everyone 6 months and older to get them. Fear of Covid-19 remains, as school closures have already begun.
While people don’t have to pay for these tests at the pharmacy, everyone—whether they use them or not—pays for them through taxes, and the tests cost more and offer fewer choices than we would get if we paid for them on our own. As I wrote in February, distributing free Covid-19 tests compromises fiscal unaccountability to taxpayers.
This is a typical example of government-centered healthcare decisionmaking. Americans have no right to know the prices the government pay for free healthcare products and services or to reject them and get the money back; they merely have the obligation to fund them.
Americans also have no right to choose alternatives if they dislike those offered by the government, which crowds out innovative efforts to pursue cheaper and more patient-friendly tests. Indeed, the over-engineered free tests are more costly to produce and less intuitive to use than the simple $1 versions available in European markets. What individuals want or like does not matter; the government has already chosen for all of us.
When the government controls the healthcare dollars earned by Americans, it arbitrarily allocates them to areas deemed important by those in government. If spending on free Covid-19 tests leaves little funding available for other health needs, so be it. Individual patient choices are lost when the government decides.
Government-centered healthcare decision-making can invite large, politically connected corporations to enter exclusive, nontransparent contracts, eliminate competitors through regulation, and perpetuate a state-corporate alliance nearly impossible for market competition to challenge. Taxpayers and patients ultimately lose.
How about a patient-centered approach? When their revenues come from patients instead of the government, companies must focus on what patients want and need. Expanding the pool of approved test vendors and removing the government from the Covid-19 test market would allow competition to drive down prices and provide a variety of offerings that satisfy the diverse tastes of patients, ultimately improving the test affordability and satisfaction for everyone.
Free Covid-19 tests have taught us an expensive lesson: the free offerings from the government often come at hefty prices to Americans. Government-centered decision making can be anticompetitive, anti-innovation, and compromise the best interests of taxpayers and patients. By preserving our own decision rights, we might have the best chance to achieve healthcare affordability.