CHICAGO -- Some Illinois residents say they’re still having trouble getting free at-home COVID-19 tests from pharmacies and insurance companies, more than three months after the White House began requiring insurers to cover them.
President Joe Biden’s administration announced in January, amid an intense COVID-19 surge, that health insurance companies would be required to cover up to eight at-home COVID-19 tests a month per person. People were supposed to be able to walk into many pharmacies, flash their health insurance cards and walk out with free boxes of at-home COVID-19 tests. Or, if a pharmacy wasn’t in-network with their insurance, a person was supposed to be able to submit a claim for reimbursement for at least $12 a test.
But it’s still not always that easy — a problem that comes as Illinois case numbers are again rising, prompting many people to again seek at-home tests.
