Tell CDC and Congress We Need Free PCR and Data Collection

CDC’s Increasing Access to Testing Program Should be Expanded and It's Data, Tracked and Reported

Take Action for Free PCR and CDC Data Collection 

With the end of the public health emergency, PCR tests will no longer be free. People with insurance will need a doctor's order to access PCR tests, and insurance may limit testing to individuals with COVID-like symptoms. Both the test and the associated doctor’s visit both will be subject to cost-sharing, depending on the plan. Uninsured people will have increasing difficulty accessing affordable PCR tests. 

Without PCR test data, local health departments and in turn the CDC will stop reporting on transmission – We will be unable to understand the current state of the pandemic, locally and nationally.  

Join us in writing Congress and the CDC and telling them to 1) Make Free PCR tests available for all, and to 2) Demand the CDC continue tracking and reporting on COVID transmission. 

With at least 40% of COVID infections asymptomatic, free PCR tests are an essential tool to keep the most vulnerable among us safe.  PCR tests detect infection earlier than rapid antigen tests, and produce significantly fewer false negatives. With sufficient funding, lab-based PCR tests can turn around results in 24 hours or less.

Further Access to COVID treatment like Paxlovid requires a positive test, and must be administered within five days of symptom onset, so uninsured and low-income people who are unable to access testing will see additional barriers to treatment. This will particularly impact Black, Indigenous, Latinx, elderly, low income and disabled people, who have suffered disproportionately in the pandemic. Free and fast PCR testing is especially essential as we work to protect people who are most likely to see serious impacts from COVID infection: immunocompromised, disabled, elderly and other high-risk people.

Send a Letter: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/free-pcr-for-all

Our Proposed Solution: The CDC’s ICATT Must Be Expanded to Provide Tests for All

The CDC’s Increasing Access to Testing Program (ICATT) has the authority to continue providing no-cost COVID testing “for communities who are at a greater risk of being impacted by the pandemic and people without health insurance.”  The PHE allowed Health and Human Services to mandate laboratory reporting. Now, local and state public health departments will no longer be required to report tests. However, the CDC’s Increasing Access to Testing Program can and must make free PCR tests available to all.  This may circumvent that limitation in data gathering. 

Join us in writing Congress, the CDC and the ICATT and ask them to make Free PCR tests available for all through ICATT. They can do this by maintaining and expanding the pharmacy and stand-alone testing sites through Color Health, eTruthNorth, Quest and others at libraries, retail locations and independent pharmacies, and to expand this program to require community health centers to test residents for free. We will also tell the CDC to continue gathering and reporting COVID transmission through their Community Transmission map. 

See the CDC’s April 13 Release and call for Comment on the End of the Public Health Emergency Here.

After you write, follow up with a phone call to your Congresspeople and Representatives. Find their numbers here. 

We will be hosting an online phonebanking on Thursday April 27 1:30-3ET

Use these Talking Points on Need for Free Fast PCR Tests:

• Free, fast PCR tests are an essential layer of protection to keep the most vulnerable among us safe. PCR tests detect infection both earlier than rapid antigen tests, and producing significantly less false negatives. Infectious disease testing should always be free to all.

• COVID, an airborne virus, is a persistent threat to all our well-being. It continues to be deadly especially for elderly, disabled and immunocompromised people, leading to more than 32,266 deaths in the US alone since the start of 2023. It is a race and class issue, disproportionately impacting Black, Indigenous and Latinx including from death, caregiver loss, and severe disease, and pediatric deaths. Because of the lack of layered public health mitigations like ventilation, masks, tests and contact tracing, and accessible vaccine and booster programs, the virus causing COVID continues to mutate, evading our existing vaccines and treatments. 

• In the US, as many as 30% of COVID patients go on to develop Long COVID, a varying array of chronic and often disabling conditions many people get after COVID infection, even if the COVID initially seemed "mild.” Long COVID encompasses over 200 symptoms ranging from debilitating fatigue to blood clots, kidney failure, and heart disease. Vaccination slightly reduces but does not eliminate the risk of Long COVID.