A pandemic rule that protects Vermonters from paying any medical expenses related to Covid-19 will remain in place until March 31, 2022, the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules ruled unanimously Thursday morning.
“The rule is intended to extend the treatment of any Covid diagnostic testing, any treatment and any prevention of Covid as a service which will be delivered at no cost share to policyholders,” said Emily Brown, the director of insurance regulation at the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation.
The rule applies to in-network and out-of-network treatment, said Brown, who testified at the meeting. That means Vermonters can get a Covid-19 test or Covid-19 treatment without paying a dime — no matter what doctor they go to, what insurance they have or if they don’t have insurance at all.
The legislative committee plays an important role in Vermont’s political system. After the Legislature passes a bill and the governor signs it into law, the committee makes sure the bill does what was intended, that the public had an opportunity to weigh in and that such things as the economic or environmental impacts were analyzed properly, among other things.
This decision by the committee could play an important role in protecting Vermonters’ wallets if Covid-19 cases spread. Though Vermont has the nation’s best record on coronavirus vaccination, as VTDigger reported Wednesday, the Delta variant has infiltrated the Green Mountain State and has likely contributed to an increase in the pace of Covid-19 cases in Vermont, a reminder that the pandemic is not over.
At this point, the state is not likely to revert to the tight restrictions in place for most of the past year, Gov. Phil Scott said Tuesday, pointing to the fact that 83.6% of eligible Vermonters had received at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“The vaccines are proving effective against all variants we’ve encountered so far, including Delta,” Scott said. “As the director of the CDC put it, this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
The Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules has eight members. Four are senators: Mark MacDonald, D-Orange; Christopher Bray, D-Addison; Virginia Lyons, D-Chittenden; and Joe Benning, R-Caledonia. Four are House members: Trevor Squirrell, D-Underhill; Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington; Mark Higley, R-Lowell; and Carol Ode, D-Burlington.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misquoted Emily Brown.
