COVID Is Here To Stay. Let’s Stop Pretending Those ‘Free Tests’ Are Free.

The consensus among scientists and lawmakers after two years of pandemic mayhem is that COVID-19 is officially endemic. That’s good news for those of us looking to move on with our lives, but it also means it’s time for society to make some changes. Let’s start with doing away with free COVID tests. 

Free testing did help us get the pandemic under control, but now it’s driving health care spending to new levels and ruining families’ economic prospects as a result. After all, free tests aren’t free—they’re funded by taxes and fast-rising insurance premiums.

Under the two COVID-19 emergency measures passed by Congress, private insurers have been required to cover tests ordered by health care providers, with few exceptions. PCR tests cost over $100 without insurance, but generally, insurance companies pay much more for them. Cameron Kaplan from California reported that his insurance disbursed $1,140 a month for his daughter’s weekly tests. Last year, my insurance paid more than $300 for a test. 

Contrast this with the fact that, in 2019, half of Americans spent less than $375 worth of health care services total. By just getting two PCR tests during the pandemic years, 50 percent of Americans are spending more on health care than they usually would in a year.

Just last month, the Department of Labor required private insurers to cover eight at-home tests per month. Being privately insured under this new rule means people are eligible for a new benefit worth $1,152 a year. All those tests could come without out-of-pocket costs, but insurance has to pay for them somehow. High insurance price hikes are likely to come at the worst possible time as the average yearly insurance premiums for families already reached $22,000 in 2021.

Critics were quick to point out that seniors were left out of this mandate, so a few weeks later, CMS mandated coverage of tests for Medicare beneficiaries.

Coverage mandates made some sense at the beginning of the pandemic, but they’re now outdated and simply unaffordable, especially if COVID is here to stay.

Testing for endemic diseases such as strep throat and pneumonia allows health care providers to pro