In an ideal world we'd distribute fast antigen tests for free. But we have in front of us a framework we've already used for vaccines and it works much better than the current one. The USG should act as a guaranteed buyer for all tests two years into the future. Buy as many ...
2/ as become available. Then send them to pharmacy chains at no charge. They can sell them for no more than $1 per box (two tests). That covers any costs tied to shelf space, time processing sales and whatever else. Flood them into CVSs, Rite Aides, Walgreens, etc.
3/ This is pretty close to what we're doing with vaccines. The pharmacies get the vaccines free but they can charged insurance for the costs of storage, giving the injection etc. I think *think* if you're insured, the govt kicks in that cost. But I'm not sure on that point.
4/ This would flood the country with quick tests, providing a huge public benefit. It would pull the costs down to 50 cents a pop. Within the ability of virtually everyone to pay. You would still want free clinics. Free or subsidized PCR tests, etc. I don't put this forward ...
5/ as a total solution. It's just a big part of a total solution. Total price to the USG wld be very low compared to the scale of money we've already spent on COVID, COVID economic relief etc.
6/ Point that we're hung up on logistics. But we've got a logistics/distribution system. Don't get hung up on a small amount of profit which may go to the chains. Just use the distribution and have tests available and cheap basically all the time to everyone at the pharmacy.
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