covid

COVID at-home tests are free through your insurance. Yes, really.

As the U.S. faces another surge in COVID-19 cases, Americans on most insurance plans can get up to eight rapid tests per month at no cost to help detect infection and prevent further spread.

Insurance companies have been required to cover the tests authorized by the FDA since January, when the Biden administration put the federal requirement for private health insurers into effect.

Not everyone can get free COVID tests; millions of military families covered by the Defense health program Tricare can’t get them covered without an order from a health care provider for now, but Medicare members began taking advantage of the rule in April.

Here’s what to know:

COVID-19 CASES ON THE RISE:What to know about the current state of the pandemic

Who can get free COVID tests?

Each person covered as part of a qualifying insurance program is entitled to up to eight free at-home tests over-the-counter every 30 days. That means a family of four could get up to 32 tests. Plans are required to cover $12 per individual test, or $24 for a box of two.

How can you get them?

Some insurance plans will cover tests sold at in-network pharmacies at

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July 18, 2022 by INSURANCE

China offers Covid vaccine insurance to win over jab sceptics

China has devised a new incentive to boost elderly vaccinations to levels that could finally allow the country to relax its zero-Covid strategy and revive the economy: insurance packages for people worried about jab-related side effects.

Dozens of cities across the country have begun offering people aged 60 and older free insurance that pays out up to Rmb500,000 ($75,000) if they fall ill — or worse — because of Covid-19 vaccines.

The packages also promise payouts to families if it can be proven that a loved one’s death was related to receiving a jab. In Beijing alone, about 60,000 seniors have signed up for the coverage since April.

As in other countries, a large number of people in China harbour doubts about the safety of the vaccines despite a lack of evidence of a high risk of serious side effects.

But government officials and the country’s strictly controlled media shy away from discussing even routine side effects, which can include shortlived fevers, soreness and other relatively mild reactions.

This has, paradoxically, created a vacuum in which unsubstantiated rumours about alleged links between vaccines and serious diseases such as leukaemia and type 1 diabetes have spread widely on Chinese social media.

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June 9, 2022 by INSURANCE
April 2024
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