The U.S. federal government prepaid for enough vaccines to cover every American, regardless of whether they have insurance, but some people still are being charged. Why?
Charge an office visit or some other fee to the recipient if the only service provided is a vaccination.
"No one should be paying for the vaccine, but we are seeing a lot of inappropriate charges," California Attorney General Rob Bonta told ABC News.In this March 24, 2021, file photo, California Assemblyman Rob Bonta speaks during a news conference shortly after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his nomination for state's attorney general in San Francisco.
Providers who administer COVID-19 vaccines have volunteered to do so and signed a contract with the federal government to receive compensation from patients' private insurance or from a government fund set aside for those who are uninsured. "It covers nurses, doctors, all of the things that it takes to set it up," Unity Health CEO Vincent Keane told ABC News."The medical assistants that give out the vaccinations, they were pulled from seeing patients, so that costs us money. The vaccines are free, but setting them up and doing them, transferring them -- all of that costs money."But not everyone has been billed a fee, which highlights inequalities in America's health care system, experts said.