Rep. Katie Porter gets CDC chief to agree to pay for coronavirus testing

Source: cnn

 Thu March 12, 2020

Lawmaker gets CDC chief to promise free coronavirus tests

(CNN)Democratic Rep. Katie Porter successfully pressed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief during a congressional hearing on Thursday to agree that the agency will pay for testing for the novel coronavirus.

The exchange came after President Donald Trump, while addressing the nation on Wednesday night, incorrectly implied that coronavirus patients could access free treatment. Many insurers have said they will pick up the cost of coronavirus testing for some policyholders, but not the treatment -- and a test or treatment that is covered is not necessarily free.

"Dr. Kadlec, for someone without insurance, do you know the out-of-pocket cost of a complete blood count test?" Porter, a California Democrat, asked Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, who said that he did not.

Porter, who is known for her incisive questioning of witnesses, then asked Kadlec whether he knew the prices of several medical services that could be associated with a coronavirus test, writing down her own figures for each service on a whiteboard she had brought to the House Oversight Committee hearing. All of his guesses were slightly to significantly above the amounts that Porter cited.
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Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/politics/katie-porter-cdc-coronavirus-testing-white-board/index.html?utm_source=twCNN&utm_content=2020-03-12T23%3A07%3A09&utm_medium=social&utm_term=link