President Joe Biden has informed Congress that he will end both the
COVID-19
national emergency and the public health emergency on May 11, setting up the transition of the COVID-19 response to the private sector.
The COVID-19 public health emergency was put in place on March 13, 2020, by then-President
Donald Trump
at the onset of the pandemic and has been extended in increments of 90 days since. The end of the emergencies means the development of vaccines, testing, and treatments, which have been offered for free throughout the pandemic, will shift out of the direct hands of the federal government as the country begins to treat the COVID-19 virus as an endemic threat.
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The Biden administration had previously said it would give states at least 60 days’ notice of the termination. The announcement comes in response to House Republicans introducing two measures that would bring an immediate end to the emergencies. The White House said Biden would veto the measures.
“If the PHE were suddenly terminated, it would sow confusion and chaos into this critical wind-down. Due to this uncertainty, tens of millions of Americans could be at risk of abruptly losing their health insurance, and states could be at risk of losing billions of dollars in funding,” the White House said in a statement Monday night.
The Biden administration has been mulling when to end the emergencies for months as most COVID-19 restrictions remain relaxed across the country and federal funding for the COVID-19 response dwindles.
The formal end in May is expected to give stakeholders additional time to transition the COVID-19 response to the commercial market. Pfizer and Moderna have already said they are considering selling their COVID-19 vaccines in the range of $110 to $130 per dose once the transition is complete.
Lawmakers had already reached a deal in the omnibus end-year spending bill to end a practice that was put in place with the emergency declaration that required that states offer continuous enrollment for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, public health insurance programs for low-income people, in order to receive additional federal funding. It has allowed millions of people who may have exceeded the income levels to qualify without a temporary or permanent lapse in coverage. Beginning in April, states will be allowed to begin removing ineligible people from Medicaid.
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Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for keeping the emergency declaration in place as long as it has, arguing officials lack justification to continue it or a plan to end it.
