Priority Setting during the Pandemic
Howard Forman and colleagues made some interesting recommendations for assuring health care to all Americans during the pandemic.
1) affordable testing and treatments
· Eliminate all out of pocket requirements for both testing and treatment of Covid 19 in Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans and private insurance.
· Create a special enrollment period for the Exchanges so that people can access coverage ‘
· Extend Medicaid coverage during the course of the pandemic to any uninsured state resident
· Eliminate the state match for those newly eligible
2) vulnerable populations need specific protections
· Nursing home resident
· Prisoners
· The homeless
3) special protections for front line health care providers
· Personal protective equipment
· Fund to pay costs for those who get sick
4) Public health infrastructure
· Deploy federal personnel to mitigate, monitor and contain locally.
5) Research to develop vaccines and treatments for Covid 19
· Fast track the research and deployment
· Make it free of charge as a covered preventive benefit