the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jun 29, 2020
Companies are charging patients exorbitant prices for COVID-19 tests, according to the New York Times. A chain of emergency rooms in Texas and Oklahoma, for example, has regularly charged patients $500 to $990 for coronavirus tests. In some cases, bills for coronavirus tests are averaging $1,114. One company, Gibson Diagnostics, has regularly charged $2,315.
Many health care providers have settled on test prices of $50 to $200. Medicare initially paid $51.31 for coronavirus tests but bumped reimbursements up to $100 in mid-April. All these companies use the same diagnostic tools and techniques. So, none of them have any reason to charge above $50, the price initially negotiated with Medicare.
We are not currently directly paying these prices. But we will eventually bear the costs of these expensive tests in the form of higher insurance premiums or through taxes. This testing is another scheme set up by the companies to profit off of our health.