COVID vaccine, treatments could go to private market this summer, official says

Key Facts

February 2, 2023 / 8:10 PM / CBS News U.S. to end COVID-19 public health emergency What Biden's plans to end the COVID-19 public health emergency will mean 04:03 The supply of free treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 purchased by the federal government could end as soon as this summer, the White House's top pandemic official said Thursday, as the Biden administration prepares to transition the medicines to the private market.
Jha is also hopeful that private insurance companies will also continue to cover COVID-19 tests, extending what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had mandated last year for the emergency.
The switch to a private market for COVID-19 products would come not long after the May deadline officials announced earlier this week, when the White House plans to end the emergency declarations that were first invoked for the pandemic three years ago.
Jha said that ending the declarations had been prompted in part by the need to end many of the flexibilities that were offered to the health care system for early virus surges.