U-M study: Ivermectin doesn't treat COVID, but insurers pay for it anyway
Ivermectin likely doesn’t work against COVID-19, according to most research to date. But that hasn’t stopped insurers — sometimes using taxpayers dollars — from covering it, according to two University of Michigan researchers and a third researcher from Boston.
Paying for treatments that are not yet shown to be effective isn’t just “wasteful spending,” the researchers wrote, but will have additional costs if consumers forgo proven COVID vaccines in favor of a drug that is not likely to work should they become ill.
It’s an unusual twist in the usual complaints against insurers, U-M’s Dr. Kao-Ping Chua, who led the study, told Bridge.
“A lot of people get annoyed with (insurers) when they don't cover evidence-based treatments,” said Chua, a primary care pediatrician and health policy researcher at the U-M Medical School. “Here's an example where insurance is covering something that doesn't work.”
Read more: https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-health-watch/u-m-study-ivermectin-doesnt-treat-covid-insurers-pay-it-anyway
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