Health officials in West Virginia say they’re waiting for word from the state and federal governments about whether they’ll have help providing COVID vaccine doses for uninsured and underinsured residents. (Getty Images)
As updated COVID-19 vaccines become available in pharmacies and clinics around the country, local health officials in West Virginia say they’re waiting for word from the state and federal governments about whether they’ll have help providing doses for uninsured and underinsured residents.
The Bridge Access Program, which last year supplied West Virginia with 13,766 free doses of COVID-19 vaccine for uninsured people, ended in August.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday despite the end of the program the agency will provide support for COVID-19 vaccines for the uninsured and underinsured.
“CDC is enhancing immunization programs through support to state and local health departments to improve access to COVID-19 vaccines for uninsured and underinsured people to help protect them from the worst effects of the virus,” the spokesperson said. “This investment provides additional resources to ensure these life-saving vaccines are available after the Bridge Access Program, which vaccinated 1.5 million people against COVID-19 over the last year, expires at the end of August. “
But local health departments in West Virginia say they have not heard yet from the state Department of Health about whether or how much support they will get. The state Department of Health did not return emails asking questions for this story.
“We’re waiting on CDC, which would then direct that to the state health department on a possible solution to get vaccine to us for individuals that are uninsured or underinsured,” Howard Gamble, administrator for the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department, told West Virginia Watch. “And so we have to wait.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending everyone aged six months and up get an updated COVID-19 vaccine this fall to protect themselves from severe illness and hospitalization and death from the disease.
The vaccine is available now at some places, including at CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens. The vaccine is free of additional charge under most health insurance plans. For people who do not have health insurance, the vaccine will cost $202 at CVS, a spokesperson said. The out-of-pocket costs for uninsured people may vary depending on the pharmaceutical company that manufactures it and whether the pharmacy charges additional fees for administering it.
Gamble said beginning next week, local health departments should be able to order doses of the vaccine for the populations covered by the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Vaccines for Children, a federal program for kids who are uninsured or underinsured.
Health departments have the option to purchase the vaccines for uninsured people, but the “vast majority” of West Virginia health departments cannot afford to do that, Gamble said.
“You’re looking at large health systems, large county health systems, maybe in other parts of the United States that might be able to do that, or have a specific line in their budget for vaccines, for uninsured or underinsured,” he said. “Some do for flu, for example, historically. But for us, I don’t have that for this entity. So we’ll wait for the CDC to push their recommendations to the state health department and then we’ll either order in that vaccine or come up with another solution.”
Dr. Brian Huggins, health officer for the Monongalia County Health Department, said the federal program ending, unless the state of West Virginia steps in to offer assistance, his health department will not be able to offer free vaccines for uninsured residents. The state has access to a vaccine support program, but officials have not yet decided whether the program will include the COVID-19 vaccine, Huggins said.
“With the Bridge program going away, unfortunately it does look like for people that don’t have insurance, there isn’t going to be a lot of support or help that we know of at the moment,” Huggins said. “And so where we’re going to be with that is that there is going to be a significant gap for the uninsured.”
Health officials had hoped the Bridge Access Program would last through December but it ran out of money, Huggins said.
Huggins said Monongalia County can offer a sliding fee scale for the vaccine administration fee, but not for the cost of the vaccine, which will be around $150.
According to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, 5.9% of West Virginia residents, or approximately 106,000 people, were without health coverage in 2022.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations for COVID-19 are on an upswing in the country.
Huggins said cases have spiked in Monongalia County, particularly since school has started again for the fall. The summer heat is also a contributing factor — many people are staying indoors where transmission happens more easily. Health officials had hoped COVID-19 would fall into a pattern similar to the seasonal flu, but it hasn’t, he said.
COVID-19 is still very infectious, even though deaths and hospitalizations are not nearly as high as they were in 2021, he said.
“[Deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19] still exist, just like they exist with flu and RSV,” Huggins said. “We want people to be protected, especially the people that want to be protected by getting that vaccine, but because of the new technology and the fact that when it was emergency use and the companies weren’t able to try to recover some of the costs of developing the vaccine in the same way, you’re now seeing that that price that hits.”
The people who are at a lower socioeconomic range — likely those who are also without access to health insurance — have a higher probability of severe illness due to the virus, Huggins said. It’s another example of Americans with wealth having access to better health than others, he said.
“I’m very hopeful that we will see something,” Huggins said. “I do believe that there will be something — either through the state of West Virginia or through the federal government that will come. I just don’t know what that’s going to be yet.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX