The Biden administration plans to spend more than $1 billion on a new program to offer free coronavirus shots to uninsured Americans after the vaccines move to the commercial market later this year, administration officials said on Tuesday.
The program for the uninsured, which will be modeled partly on an existing childhood vaccination program and will cover an estimated 30 million people, will include a first-of-its-kind partnership with pharmacy chains in which the government will pay the administrative costs of giving the doses to patients. Pfizer and Moderna have pledged to offer the shots at no cost to those who lack insurance.