Funding for free COVID-19 Vaccinations Should Continue

By lpretty3 on August 20, 2024

In April 2023, a federally funded program was created for uninsured or underinsured individuals to have access to receive free COVID-19 vaccinations. This program, termed the Bridge Access Program, was given funding via the Presidential Budget for fiscal years 2023-2024 for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS allocated these funds to the CDC to implement the program using the existing Public Health Services Act, under section 317, to purchase and distribute COVID-19 to participating public health departments, health centers, and pharmacies such as CVS & Walgreens. This provided free access for American citizens, who otherwise may not have been able to afford them, COVID-19 vaccines at no cost to them. However, at the end of August 2024 funding for this program will end. This will lead to around 25 million uninsured American citizens not having free access to their COVID-19 vaccines or boosters, right before respiratory virus season begins in the fall. There has been no policy or budget proposals in place to continue this program following its end in August 2024, leaving millions of Americans at risk of contracting COVID-19 at epidemic proportions through large, unvaccinated populations.

Source: CDC

Funding for this program should continue as free vaccines against COVID-19 for disadvantaged citizens would prove beneficial for the overall health of the United States. By protecting all people against this disease through vaccination, regardless of insurance status or income, we ensure to contain the spread and limit the number of cases that could potentially arise once Fall and Winter 2024 arrive. The Bridge Access Program already has the infrastructure in place to purchase and distribute these vaccines among participating entities like health departments and pharmacies, so the only necessary component would be access to more funding from the federal government to keep this program operational. The HHS and CDC would be crucial in advocating to receive more funding for this program because as a main stakeholder, they have the most direct ties to the federal government to receive additional funding. Additional stakeholders such as COVID-19 vaccine developers (like Pfizer and Moderna) as well as pharmacies (like CVS and Walgreens) should also help with advocacy and lobbying towards the federal government to keep the program funded as they have the financial incentive to gain by having the program still running. These stakeholders must act swiftly as the program's funds will cease at the end of August, so additional funding will need to be added from the fiscal budget to keep it operationally through the end of winter, as originally intended. In doing this, the Bridge Access Program can prevent the next epidemic of COVID-19 spreading throughout the United States, as the virus does not care whether you are insured, if you are not vaccinated you can become infected.