CDC ends free COVID-19 vaccine program for uninsured adults

New COVID-19 vaccines have been approved by the FDA as the virus has resurged in communities across the country. While these vaccines continue to be free for people with insurance, uninsured adults may soon be feeling the pinch as a federal program offering free vaccines winds down.

The CDC’s Bridge Access Program, which gave free COVID-19 vaccines to uninsured adults, ends at the end of this month. It vaccinated 1.5 million people over the past year, the CDC told Marketplace in a statement.

“Now, uninsured individuals no longer have that guaranteed source or access to free vaccines,” said Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of the Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured and director of State Health Reform at the health policy research group KFF.

For some, the $100 or more for a vaccine may be too high a price.

“Lower-income uninsured individuals — which by and large are the majority of people who are uninsured, — are at the greatest risk for deciding to forego getting vaccinated because of the costs they are likely to face,” she said.

Roughly 11% of non-elderly adults in the U.S. are uninsured, according to KFF, and are concentrated in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, like Texas and Florida.