Reminder: The Trump Admin is trying to strike down the law which would make a Caronavirus vaccine free

SHOT (if you can afford one):

!! Azar refuses to promise a coronavirus vaccine will be affordable for anyone:

"We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can't control that price, because we need the private sector to invest.. Price controls won't get us there."

— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) February 26, 2020

CHASER:

If the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended a coronavirus vaccine, the ACA would require that all insurance plans cover it with no patient cost-sharing. (That wouldn't apply to short-term plans expanded by the Trump administration, which do not comply with ACA rules). https://t.co/OK7SOm22Wh

— Larry Levitt (@larry_levitt) February 26, 2020

In other words, assuming such a vaccine proved to be extremely expensive at full price (which is pretty likely), anyone enrolled in a non-ACA compliant policy...such as the #ShortAssPlans being pushed heavily by the Trump Administration...would be pretty much screwed.

The Trump Administration is, of course, also rooting for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals / Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act.

Speaking of #ShortAssPlans and the Caronavirus...

A Miami man who flew to China worried he might have coronavirus. He may owe thousands.

After returning to Miami last month from a work trip in China, Osmel Martinez Azcue found himself in a frightening position: he was developing flu-like symptoms, just as coronavirus was ravaging the country he had visited....

He went to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he said he was placed in a closed-off room.

...“This will be out of my pocket,” Azcue, who has a very limited insurance plan, recalled saying. “Let’s start with the blood test, and if I test positive, just discharge me.”

Fortunately, that’s exactly what happened. He had the flu, not the deadly virus that has infected tens of thousands of people, mostly in China, and killed at least 2,239 as of Friday’s update by the World Health Organization.

But two weeks later, Azcue got unwelcome news in the form of a notice from his insurance company about a claim for $3,270.

In 2018, President Donald Trump’s administration rolled back Affordable Care Act regulations and allowed so-called “junk plans” in the market. Consumers mistakenly assume that the plans with lower monthly costs will be better than no insurance at all in case of a medical catastrophe, but often the plans aren’t very different from going without insurance altogether.

...The limited plan’s requirement to provide three years of medical records before coverage kicks in, Corlette said, is not uncommon. The professor said she’s seen it come up for conditions like cancers that were never diagnosed but might have been hinted at in doctors’ visits from years past.

“That’s the critical difference between [Affordable Care Act] plans and junk plans,” she said. “[Junk plans] will not cover preexisting conditions.”