/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-infobae.s3.amazonaws.com/public/YTFGNII5IJBSFDVIZL5MHTWQIE.jpg "The US Government assured that patients with coronavirus without health insurance will receive care")
Tens of millions of Americans without health insurance will be covered by the government if they get sick from coronavirus, the secretary of Health affirmed on Friday.
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Alex Azar told reporters that the so-called law CARES, a stimulus package to deal with the coronavirus approved by Congress, includes $ 100 billion for healthcare providers who “will be prohibited from billing the uninsured for the cost of their care“
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Instead, hospitals and health professionals will receive reimbursement of Medicare fees, a state insurance program for seniors.
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Azar added that people who recently became unemployed and therefore lost their insurance, will be eligible in a special enrollment period to receive medical care under the Affordable Care Act, approved by former President Barack Obama.
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President Donald Trump has spent most of his term trying to undo that law known as Obamacare, for which a large part of the previously uninsured population could obtain coverage.
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The latest official figures showed that there were 27.5 million people without health insurance, but the current number is probably much higher after almost 10 million people filed for unemployment in the last two weeks.
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Unlike other wealthy countries, the United States links citizens’ healthcare with their employers.
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Although state insurance, called Medicaid, exists for people in poverty, many people whose jobs don’t offer coverage don’t qualify because their income is above the threshold, even though they cannot afford to buy insurance on the open market.
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The Trump administration has added numerous additional barriers to qualifying for Medicaid, and as a result, the uninsured population has grown by several million after falling to record lows just after the Obama era.
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Public health experts have repeatedly warned that the uninsured may be reluctant to seek treatment, exposing themselves to greater risk and fueling the spread of the disease.
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