Hello, Canadians of Lemmy! Down in the USA there is a lot of conflicting information regarding the efficacy of y’alls healthcare systems. Without revealing my personal bias, I was hoping for some anecdotes or summaries from those whom actually live there.
TIL US citizens have to pay for their COVID vaccines… wtf.
Southern Michigan here. There may have been places charging for them, but they were readily available from lots of places for free. In our area county health departments, local pharmacies, and most hospitals were all doing free vaccines and boosters.
It was free in the US, that was a policy decision because of the whole issue and some people wouldn't be able to afford it. But at some point boosters are not free afaik.
The latest ones coming out by the end of the month are no longer free if you have insurance.
Out of curiosity, do annual flu vaccines cost money in the US?
In Canada, the way those work is you just go to any pharmacy or most doctors offices. They'll take info from your health card, give you the shot (usually no wait, maybe 30 min at most if it's unusually busy), ask you to stick around for 15 minutes and then you can leave. No cost all and super convenient.
You're asking the wrong guy, I'm Canadian. There's an askanamerican sub.
New ones are $100-$200 dollars where I'm at. This winter could be a rough one.
A lot of times and places they're free. But yeah, WTF.
I didn't here in Texas.
Insurance plans will almost always cover it. If you do not have insurance, you are probably going to pay for it yourself now.
How much did they ask for if you didn't have insurance?
There are about 2 million people in the US that don't have insurance.
God I wish the number of uninsured was that low. It is about 8% of Americans or over 26 million Americans:
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/08/02/new-hhs-report-shows-national-uninsured-rate-reached-all-time-low-in-2022.html
There is a CDC program to get it for free but that extra barrier will likely mean that people simply do not get the vaccine. Otherwise uninsured people will likely spend $120-130 per shot.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/covid-19-shots-free-insurance/story?id=103167181
The vaccine likely costs Moderna and Pfizer a tenth of that. The US paid for Moderna's research and increased production capacity. In return Moderna sold the government vaccines at a higher profit than they did for the EU.