国会砍掉预算 美国无医保者将需自费检测和治疗新冠 Uninsured face surprise medical bills for Covid testing, hospital treatment after US Congress fails to fund pandemic aid program

由于美国政府不再继续为无医保者新冠检测和治疗项目提供资金，美国的无医保者今后将必须自费进行核酸检测并自行负担新冠治疗费用，免费疫苗也不再是想打就能打。

People who don’t have health insurance are now being charged $100 or more for Covid testing by some labs and may face bills for hospital treatment, and free vaccines may not be as easy for everyone to get since emergency federal aid for some pandemic programs has run out and hasn’t been renewed by Congress.

由于赞助疫情期间一些项目的联邦政府紧急拨款已枯竭且国会没有注入新资金，如今没有医保的美国人在接受部分实验室的核酸检测时将需要缴纳至少100美元（约合人民币637元）的费用，并可能需要自费住院治疗，打免费疫苗也没那么容易了。

Funding for the uninsured was dropped by Senate and House negotiators after Republicans opposed the money needed to extend the program, a senior Democratic aide in the US House told CNBC.

美国众议院的一名资深民主党助手告诉美国消费者新闻与商业频道称，由于共和党人反对继续向这一项目投钱，参众两院的谈判代表已经放弃为无医保者提供资金。

Meanwhile, the Health Resources and Services Administration, which runs the uninsured program for HHS, stopped accepting claims to test and treat uninsured Covid patients on March 22 due to insufficient funds. While the US is providing Covid shots for free, the agency stopped covering the costs to administer the vaccines for uninsured people as of April 5.

与此同时，由于资金不足，为美国卫生与公众服务部运营这一无医保项目的卫生资源和服务管理局也从3月22日起停止接收要求做核酸检测和治疗的无医保新冠患者。美国目前仍免费提供新冠疫苗，但是该机构从4月5日起不再负担无医保者注射疫苗的费用。

Several major testing companies are now charging the uninsured. Quest Diagnostics told CNBC uninsured people now have to pay at least $100 for a PCR test, which is the most accurate one. Labcorp told CNBC the company is charging $119 for its PCR testing for people who aren’t covered by insurance. Curative, which runs thousands of testing sites across 34 states, said it can no longer provide free Covid testing to the uninsured in areas of the country where state or local governments aren't picking up the tab.

几家大型检测公司现在也开始对无医保者收费。奎斯特诊断公司告诉美国消费者新闻与商业频道，人们现在至少要支付100美元才能做准确度最高的核酸检测。美国实验室控股公司对美国消费者新闻与商业频道说，该公司向做核酸检测的无医保者收费119美元。在全美34个州运营数千个检测点的美国凯迪泰医疗科技有限公司表示，在那些州政府或当地政府不承担费用的地方，该公司将不能再为无医保者免费提供核酸检测。

Without additional federal money, people in the US will face a dramatic reduction in access to testing, particularly the uninsured, that will likely result in Covid outbreaks that were preventable, according to Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

美国公共卫生协会执行董事乔治·本杰明博士指出，没有了额外的联邦政府资金支持，美国民众核酸检测机会将会剧减，尤其是无医保者，这将可能导致本可避免的疫情暴发。

Uninsured people who become hospitalized with Covid could also face bills for their treatment now that the federal government is no longer reimbursing hospitals, according to Molly Smith with the American Hospital Association. Smith said treating someone with Covid can cost anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars if the patient ends up on a mechanical ventilator.

美国医院协会的莫莉·史密斯称，如今联邦政府不再报销医院账单，住院治疗新冠肺炎的无医保者将必须自费治疗。史密斯说，一个人治疗新冠肺炎的费用至少需数万美元，如果患者上了呼吸机，治疗费用将高达数十万美元。

Some hospitals have financial assistance plans for the uninsured, Smith said. However, there is growing concern that some patients simply won’t go to the hospital when they need treatment for Covid because they’re worried about how much it will now cost.

史密斯说，一些医院有针对无医保者的财政援助计划。但是，一些患者害怕治疗费用高昂，根本不会去医院，这也越来越令人担忧。

There were 28 million uninsured people in the US in 2020, according to the most current data available from the Census Bureau. The current number of uninsured is likely lower due to a record 14.2 million people signing up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act as of January this year, about 2 million more people than the previous record of 12.6 million set in 2016.

根据从人口普查局得到的最新数据，2020年美国共有2800万无医保者。目前的无医保者数量可能比那时低，因为截止今年1月，共有1420万人通过平价医疗法案加入了医保，这一数字刷新了记录，比上一次新加入医保人数记录（2016年的1260万人）多了约200万人。

The uninsured are often people of color and lower-income workers who have jobs that put them at higher risk of infection because they are work in industries such as retail, restaurant and grocery stores where they interact with the public and can’t stay at home, according to Jennifer Tolbert, an expert on the uninsured at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

凯泽家庭基金会关于无医保者的专家詹尼弗·托尔伯特说，无医保者往往是有色人种和低收入劳动者，这部分劳动者在零售、餐厅和食品杂货店等行业工作，他们需要和公众互动，不能居家工作，因此感染风险也更高。

While Covid cases are low right now in the US compared to the peak of the winter omicron wave, barriers to testing will leave these communities more vulnerable again if another wave hits the US, Tolbert said. Curative said its real-time data points to another potential surge on the horizon.

托尔伯特说，尽管美国目前的新冠病例数量相比去年冬天奥密克戎感染高峰期大为减少，但是如果新一波疫情来袭，这些检测屏障将会让美国社区再次变得不堪一击。凯迪泰公司表示，实时数据显示，另一波疫情可能即将来临。

The uninsured program, established at the start of the pandemic under the Trump administration, has paid out about $20 billion in claims since 2020, according to HRSA. Tolbert said about 60% of that money went toward testing, 31% for Covid treatments, and 9% for the administrative costs of vaccinations.

据卫生资源和服务管理局称，疫情之初在特朗普执政时期成立的无医保项目自2020年以来已经支付了约200亿美元。托尔伯特表示，约60%的钱用于检测，31%的钱用于治疗新冠肺炎，9%的钱用于疫苗接种的行政开支。

"The truth is that unfortunately the uninsured are the last to be thought about and the first to get the negative outcomes when we decide to pull back,” Benjamin said.

本杰明称：“事实上，不幸的是，当政府决定撤资时，无医保者总是最后被考虑到但却是最先承受恶果的那一群人。”

英文来源：美国消费者新闻与商业频道网站

翻译&编辑：丹妮