Administration Offers Plan to Cover COVID Care for Uninsured

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has come out with a plan to start paying hospitals and doctors who care for uninsured COVID-19 patients.

Expect Democratic lawmakers and health industry groups to press for more help. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says hospitals and doctors would submit their bills directly to the government and they would get paid at Medicare rates. Uninsured people wouldn't be liable for any of the costs. And health care providers wouldn't have to ask questions about a patient’s immigration status.

That's an issue cited as a barrier to care in communities with many foreign-born residents.

(Story written by RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR/AP)