Letter Campaign to Congress: Keep Free COVID Vaccines for Uninsured Adults

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The CDC’s Bridge program ends prematurely in August, tell Congress to fund free COVID vaccines for underinsured and uninsured adults

Join us in urging Congress to fund free COVID vaccines for underinsured and uninsured adults. The CDC’s Bridge Access Program, which provides COVID vaccines to uninsured and underinsured adults, is ending prematurely in August 2024 due to a loss of congressional funding.

 

Thanks to our community’s advocacy, the CDC voted to recommend the upcoming 2024-2025 vaccine formulations for all ages, 6 months and up. All of us need access to the latest vaccines to reduce the risk of severe disease, reduce the risk of Long COVID, better match currently circulating variants, and combat waning immunity.

 

Now, we need your help again to demand congressional funding for vaccine access for uninsured and underinsured adults.

 

You can submit a letter via our Action Network campaign, keeping our letter in full or editing it as you wish. Letters to elected officials are most effective when they start with a brief personal comment (a sentence or two) about why vaccine access for uninsured people matters to you, your loved ones, and your community.

 

Send your letter to Congress

 

Instructions:

Submit our letter below to Congress via our Action Network campaign. Remember to add something personal to you.

 

First, go to the Action Network campaign and provide your First Name, Last Name, Email, Street Address, City, and ZIP code in order to identify the correct member of Congress. Next, click on “Start Writing”, and then you will need to provide your phone number, and select “Health” as the Letter Topic. Then, you can add edit the subject of the letter and add something personal to the contents of the letter. Click “Send Letter,” and a letter will be sent to your local member of Congress.

 

Send your letter to Congress

 

Letter Template:

I urge you to take action to mandate and fund a program that ensures ongoing free COVID vaccine access for uninsured and underinsured adults. The CDC’s COVID Bridge Access program is ending prematurely in August 2024 due to a lack of sufficient funding. Uninsured adults must not lose access to free COVID vaccines. COVID vaccine access for uninsured and underinsured adults could be accomplished through ongoing maintenance of the Bridge Access program or the proposed Vaccines for Adults program, which would cover all CDC-recommended vaccines. 

 

Over 25 million adults lack adequate health insurance to cover the cost of these lifesaving vaccinations. If the Bridge Access Program ends in August 2024 without an alternative in place, underinsured and uninsured adults are unlikely to have access to the updated COVID vaccinations this fall, which are recommended by the CDC for people of all ages (children and adults, ages 6 months and up). Congress must ensure that every one of us can access the latest COVID vaccines in order to prevent unnecessary development of severe disease and Long COVID amid immunity that wanes in the months following vaccination and the emergence of new variants.

 

 

Please take action to fund free COVID vaccines for uninsured and underinsured adults.

 

 

Full Statement:

In April 2024, the CDC announced the premature end of the COVID Bridge Access program in August 2024 due to a lack of sufficient funding [1]. Before this announcement, the program was set to expire in December 2024. Uninsured adults must not lose access to free COVID vaccines. It is crucial that Congress mandate and fund a program that ensures ongoing free COVID vaccine access for uninsured adults. COVID vaccine access for uninsured and underinsured adults could be accomplished through ongoing maintenance of the Bridge Access program or the proposed Vaccines for Adults program [2], which would cover all CDC-recommended vaccines.

 

 

Over 25 million adults are without adequate health insurance to cover the cost of vaccination [3]. Since the premature end of the federal public health emergency in May 2023, the federal government no longer provides free distribution of COVID vaccines, instead transitioning to a commercialized approach [4]. Most private insurance plans cover the cost of vaccination; however, the CDC’s Bridge Access Program has provided free vaccines to adults who are uninsured or whose insurance won’t cover the full cost of a vaccine. 

 

If the Bridge Access Program ends in August 2024 without an alternative in place, underinsured and uninsured adults are unlikely to have access to the updated COVID vaccinations this fall, which are recommended by the CDC for people of all ages (children and adults, ages 6 months and up). All of us need access to the latest COVID vaccines in order to prevent the unnecessary development of Long COVID [4-7] and severe disease amid immunity that wanes in the months following vaccination [8-10] and the emergence of new variants. 

 

 

Access to necessary vaccines and other public health protections should not depend on individual medical insurance coverage or ability to pay. Those lacking adequate health insurance are more likely to be people of color or of lower socioeconomic status [11]. These same marginalized groups continue to experience disproportionate harm from COVID during the ongoing pandemic [12-14]. Discontinuation of the Bridge Program without an alternative would only serve to further exacerbate health inequities inherent in our society. 

 

 

References

  1. National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Immunization Services Division. Frequently Asked Questions about the Bridge Access Program. Published online April 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/bridge/downloads/bridge-access-program-faq.pdf 

  2. US Department of Health & Human Services. Fiscal Year 2025 Budget In Brief. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2025-budget-in-brief.pdf

  3. Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Health Policy, US Department of Health and Human Services. National Uninsured Rate Remains Largely Unchanged at 7.7 Percent in the Third Quarter of 2023. Published online February 2024. https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/e497c623e5a0216b31291cd37063df1d/NHIS-Q3-2023-Data-Point-FINAL.pdf 

  4. FAQ – Commercialization of COVID-19 Medical Countermeasures. Accessed July 14, 2024. https://aspr.hhs.gov:443/COVID-19/Pages/FAQ-Commercialization.aspx 

  5. Fang Z, Ahrnsbrak R, Rekito A. Evidence Mounts That About 7% of US Adults Have Had Long COVID. JAMA. Published online June 7, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.11370 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2819957 

  6. Notarte KI, Catahay JA, Velasco JV, et al. Impact of COVID-19 vaccination on the risk of developing long-COVID and on existing long-COVID symptoms: A systematic review. eClinicalMedicine. 2022;53:101624. doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101624 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(22)00354-6/fulltext 

  7. Watanabe A, Iwagami M, Yasuhara J, Takagi H, Kuno T. Protective effect of COVID-19 vaccination against long COVID syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Vaccine. 2023;41(11):1783-1790. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.02.008 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X23001342 

  8. Link-Gelles R. Effectiveness of COVID-19 (2023-2024 Formula) vaccines. Presented at: FDA VRBPAC Meeting; June 5, 2024. Accessed June 12, 2024. https://www.fda.gov/media/179140/download 

  9. Wu N, Joyal-Desmarais K, Vieira AM, et al. COVID-19 boosters versus primary series: update to a living review. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 2023;11(10):e87-e88. doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(23)00265-5 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(23)00265-5/fulltext 

  10. Menegale F, Manica M, Zardini A, et al. Evaluation of Waning of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine–Induced Immunity: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(5):e2310650. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.10650 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2804451 

  11. Cha AE, Cohen RA. Demographic Variation in Health Insurance Coverage: United States, 2020. Accessed July 14, 2024. https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/113097 

  12. Sabo S, Johnson S. Males and the Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native Populations Experienced Disproportionate Increases in Deaths During Pandemic. Census.gov. Accessed July 14, 2024. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/06/covid-19-impacts-on-mortality-by-race-ethnicity-and-sex.html 

  13. Lundberg DJ, Wrigley-Field E, Cho A, et al. COVID-19 Mortality by Race and Ethnicity in US Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas, March 2020 to February 2022. JAMA Network Open. 2023;6(5):e2311098. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.11098 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2804391 

  14. Jirmanus L, Valenti R, Schwartzman EG, et al. Too Many Deaths, Too Many Left Behind: A People’s External Review of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Pandemic Response. AJPM Focus. Published online February 24, 2024. doi:10.1016/j.focus.2024.100207 https://www.ajpmfocus.org/article/S2773-0654(24)00026-9/fulltext 

 
 
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