I didn’t pay for these tests, but they aren’t free. The cost is billed to my health insurance. A few days ago, I received a routine letter from my insurance company summarizing what it paid: $1,140 a month for my daughter’s weekly PCR test. That comes to about $285 per test, 20 times the cost of an at-home rapid test.
Policy makers at both the state and federal levels have opted to finance Covid testing through private health insurance. A California law enacted in November requires insurers to pay for Covid testing without copayments from patients. Insurers must reimburse testing providers, even out-of-network ones, and the state places no restriction on the amount reimbursed.
This gives providers unchecked power to set prices, inflating the societal cost of testing as a tool for controlling the pandemic. Insurance companies will inevitably pass the costs on to policyholders through either higher premiums or reduced benefits.
Let’s revisit the $1,140 per month for testing at my daughter’s preschool. On an annual basis, that would add up to $13,860—a sum that comes close to the $14,974 average yearly expenditure per student in California public schools.