03-04-2020, 06:11 AM
Quote:Sarah Kliff of the New York Times reported Saturday that Pennsylvania native Frank Wucinski "found a pile of medical bills" totaling $3,918 waiting for him and his three-year-old daughter after they were released from government-mandated quarantine at Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California. "My question is why are we being charged for these stays, if they were mandatory and we had no choice in the matter?"'Why Are We Being Charged?' Surprise Bills From Coronavirus Testing Spark Calls for Government to Cover All Costs | Common Dreams News
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is not billing patients for coronavirus testing, according to Business Insider. "But there are other charges you might have to pay, depending on your insurance plan, or lack thereof," Business Insider noted. "A hospital stay in itself could be costly and you would likely have to pay for tests for other viruses or conditions." Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, told the Times that "the most important rule of public health is to gain the cooperation of the population." "There are legal, moral, and public health reasons not to charge the patients," Gostin said.
In the case of the Wucinskis, Kliff reported that "the ambulance company that transported [them] charged the family $2,598 for taking them to the hospital." "An additional $90 in charges came from radiologists who read the patients' X-ray scans and do not work for the hospital," Kliff noted. The CDC declined to respond when Kliff asked whether the federal government would cover the costs for patients like the Wucinskis. The Intercept's Robert Mackey wrote last Friday that the Wucinskis' situation spotlights "how the American government's response to a public health emergency, like trying to contain a potential coronavirus epidemic, could be handicapped by relying on a system built around private hospitals and for-profit health insurance providers."