![]() ![]() rules allow for-profit pop-up sites offering simple rapid tests to operate without any experience in healthcare or science. SHAPIRO: You also write that the current U.S. But there is big money when combined, and the biggest makers of this big money are the big companies that do the testing, that do the medicine. We should be really thankful for the people who, on the ground, are doing this testing on the frontlines. ![]() Now, of course, this is an essential service. TANNER: Well, the big medical testing labs and companies are making literally billions of dollars, so it is a very big business. SHAPIRO: How profitable is this for testing companies? So it pays to check what those prices are. And, again, there's a very wide range of prices from zero at community centers, at health centers, various hospitals to hundreds and hundreds of dollars, whatever these new testing centers may want to charge. Those are considered non-medically necessary tests. If, however, they're not medically necessary - you want to go traveling to a place that requires a test you want to go to a concert you want you go to - back to work and your work requires it - then you have to pay. ![]() TANNER: So the rules are if they are medically necessary tests - that means either you have COVID or you've been exposed to someone that has COVID - those tests are covered by the U.S. SHAPIRO: So why are we seeing people pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket? If the test lab thinks they need several tests in unison, perhaps raking up a bill of as high as a thousand dollars, that is also allowed under the U.S. So that means if they charge an average $100 or $150, that's OK. government rules, insurers have to pay for medically necessary tests no matter what the price when it comes to COVID. So the same way as car prices will go up and down according to supply and demand, it happens with medicine. TANNER: The wide range of prices is pretty much explained by the fact that it is an open free market with medicine as it is in almost everything else in the United States. SHAPIRO: Does that explain the wide range in prices, or is there more going on here? But companies will disagree as to what the true cost should be. But the raw cost of the test itself - the raw materials are rather low. At the time, you've got to pay the staff, the utilities and so on. And that is because you have to have the raw materials, and then you need a machine that can be from thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending how many tests it does. TANNER: Well, it's hard to answer directly this question. SHAPIRO: Can you start by giving us a baseline number of what a PCR test for COVID-19 should cost? Adam Tanner wrote about the huge price range in these tests for Consumer Reports. While government and insurance companies have often covered these costs, somebody ultimately has to pay. What should a test for COVID-19 cost - $20, more than $1,400? Those are both real prices from last year, according to one study. ![]()
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