Welcome news for those suffering the most right now:
Kaiser Permanente has waived all member out-of-pocket costs for the treatment of COVID-19 to alleviate the cost burden of impacted members, the health care provider announced Friday. “We want our members who need treatment for COVID-19 to be able to focus all their energy on getting well, not on worrying how to pay for treatment,” said Greg Adams, chairman and CEO
https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2020/04/06/kaiser-waives-costs-for-covid-19-treatment-for.html
Insurers
Cigna and
Humana announced Monday that they would waive consumer costs associated with COVID-19 treatment. Last week, CVS Health announced a more limited change — that
Aetna would waive costs to patients for hospital admissions related to the coronavirus.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/30/824075753/good-news-with-caveats-some-insurers-waive-costs-to-patients-for-covid-19-treatm
These announcements are a "big deal" says Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. She notes that, on average, people's deductibles for health policies in the U.S. run between $1,800 and $6,500. "That's — for most families — a lot more cash than they have sitting in their bank account," she says. "So that's really scary."
