If people living or working in New Jersey are still in the mood for the COVID-19 vaccination, Gov. Phil Murphy reminded them Thursday that it will cost no money, even if they do not have insurance.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has negotiated an agreement with vaccine providers to accept the insurance as payment, Murphy said. People without insurance will not be charged at all, reads the governor’s statement.
“As we roll out our robust vaccination program across the country, we want to make it clear to New Jersey residents that no one has to pay for the vaccine themselves, whether or not they have health insurance coverage,” Murphy said. statement Thursday.
“We strongly encourage everyone to pre-register with hundreds of thousands of their fellow New Jerseyans to receive the vaccine and take another step to end the pandemic.”
Marlene Caride, commissioner for banking and insurance, said her office has issued a guideline to remind insurance companies of this requirement as the state works to protect the health and safety of our residents in response to the global pandemic. ‘
The first phase priority groups designated to receive the vaccine include medical professionals, nursing home staff and residents, correctional officers and inmates, and first responders, such as police officers and emergency management technicians. Since December 15, nearly 138,000 shots have been fired.
About 450,000 people signed up on the first day of a new state website that pre-registers members of the public for vaccination when their priority group is called, Murphy said.
The Murphy administration has set itself the goal of vaccinating 4.7 million or 70% of the state’s population within six months. But some people, including hospital workers, feared early on that the vaccine might not be safe because it had been approved. State and federal health professionals stressed that no corners were cut during the trials and that the vaccines received the same level of examination and testing as any previous vaccine.
There is evidence that public opposition is starting to decline, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said on Monday. A poll conducted in late December found that 53% of New Jersey people would “definitely” get the vaccine, compared to 44% in and around mid-December.
Ed Lifshitz, director of the Public Service for Communicable Diseases, said the chances of someone being harmed by the vaccine outweigh the threat of the coronavirus.
“Let me put it relatively simply,” Lifshitz, a physician, said during the coronavirus briefing with Governor Monday. ‘In New Jersey, we had about half a million cases of COVID with nearly 20,000 deaths. In the United States, we have given nearly ten times as many doses or more than 4 million doses without deaths due to the vaccine. I will definitely take my chance every day of the week on the vaccine over the virus. ”
The pre-registration website is located at covid19.nj.gov/vaccine.
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Susan K. Livio can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.