“Democrats support making COVID-19 testing, treatment, and any eventual vaccines free to everyone, regardless of their wealth, insurance coverage, or immigration status.”
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As president, Biden actively LED and DROVE this promise through executive action: he issued the Jan 21, 2021 executive order behind CMS/DOL/Treasury guidance requiring plans to cover COVID diagnostic testing without cost sharing while HRSA's COVID-19 Uninsured Program reimbursed providers so the uninsured got free testing, treatment, and vaccine administration; DHS/ICE committed not to conduct enforcement at vaccination sites and pledged access 'regardless of immigration status'; and the federal government purchased vaccines and distributed them free to all. This is clearly beyond a single supporting vote. However, the prior FULL (+1.0 'essentially 100%') rating is too generous and is downgraded on the same nonpartisan standard I would apply to either party, because the 'regardless of wealth/insurance' clause centered on the uninsured did NOT hold for the term: free COVID testing/treatment for the uninsured LAPSED when the HRSA Uninsured Program stopped accepting claims on March 22, 2022 (testing/treatment) and April 5, 2022 (vaccine administration), and the successor Bridge Access Program that kept vaccines free for uninsured adults ended early in August 2024 rather than running through its planned Dec 2024 date. Biden requested $22.5B that Congress declined, so the erosion was partly congressional inaction, but a promise-keeping tracker cannot call this 'kept essentially 100%' when the exact population the promise emphasized lost free testing/treatment mid-term. CHAMPIONED (+0.75) — led and drove the effort, largely delivered, but not fully/permanently enacted for everyone — is the fair, adversarially-corrected label.
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