A member of my household has a costco membership so we were gonna try and get me vaxxed using their member discount for the $140 price rather than the even more evil $202 price. So I called and confirmed with the Pharmacy that we could pull it off, we could not. I'm gonna have to buy my own membership, but first I wanted to confirm how much it would cost there.
Pharmacy tech: "Cash price is $39 and some change."
Me: "For the Novavax?"
Them: "Oh you're also getting Novavax. That was Flu. Let me check. It's probably the same though."
Me: "Oh, I don't think so."
A few seconds of keyboard clicks go by.
Them: "Nobody ever asks about the cash price. It's. Oh.... It's $201.99"
Yeah, that's what I freaking thought. 
The costco membership is $65, but it actually is cheaper for me to buy a membership because I can get a $20 giftcard back if I do it through the veteran's reward program. Guess I'm getting a costco membership.
This bleeping country. 
Friendly heads up, you can immediately 100% refund the costco membership. They have a money back guarantee on the membership, like everything else they sell.
It's disgusting that the vaccine is so expensive. Corporate greed at it's finest. Should be $5 or less given they have sold billions of doses.
Meanwhile me a privileged person with insurance just walked into my grocery store, got the shot for free, no questions or co pay.
This country is absolutely ridiculous. Even if I was a completely selfish prick who only cared about myself and was like WELL JUST GET INSURANCE THEN, it makes no sense. Insurance doesn't protect you from a virus, widespread immunity does. Privileged insured people cannot live in a society with widespread immunity IF PEOPLE WITHOUT INSURANCE CAN'T GET THE VACCINE
It's complete nonsense. Everyone should have the insured person experience in this (and in all healthcare) because it literally does not work unless everyone gets the shots.
Just remarkable what happens when you build a healthcare system around profit instead of being effective. Loads of money being spent to accomplish literally nothing because we won't have enough vaccinated people because so many people can't afford it.
Ope, pardon me. if I could get by real quick. I'm just gonna individually remove myself from a Global Pandemic.
I literally fucking did this 2 weeks ago. I have health insurance but antivax adoptive parents that'll kick me out if they find out I'm microchipped
Fair warning, you need to take your mask off to get the id Pic and at my store that's near the busiest place in the entire store
Edit: also I used to use the free options for people without insurance at like Walgreens or whatever and every single pharmacist tech immediately starts treating you like shit if you say you aren't insured!!! And because I'm not white they assume I'm an undocumented immigrant (which isn't entirely incorrect but still)
I watched a doc on costco founder and he uses a business model that is different than any other retailer. The profit the corp records comes directly from subscription fees and cc's. All the merch in the store is marked up approximately 30% above cost and is used for all operating costs. So upper management's main job is run costco at %30. The end result is you can get the best value from costco over other retail stores. It isn't a huge amount but every bit helps.
That checks out with why they limit the membership card to two people on the dot rather than to a household or give the ability to buy an extra card.
According to my uninformed opinion, this is what's holding next gen vaccines back. Like for the last 2.5 years we've all been reading about successful sterilising or improved vaccines passing 2nd and 3rd stage human trials, but it all ends because no for profit company feels any incentive to pick up the university research and actually sell the damn thing. mRNA vaccines are perfect in a way, they're expensive af and it needs to be updated every year.
I need to stress that this is all vibes from me, tho.
On the plus side now you can get that dog in you for $1.50 WITH a soft drink
Lol, I never needed a membership for that. Turns out they changed it back in April.
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Death to America
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I was just ranting about the TRIPS waiver to an unsuspecting coworker today! I hate this shit so fucking much, Bill Gates should be executed.
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So weird. I went to CVS for novavax a month ago, they didn't charge me anything or even check insurance.
Weird. Did you use them before? You may have had something on file and slipped in before they stopped doing the bridge program or your state appropriated funds to temporarily continue it. I hear some of the lesser-hellhole states have done that.
I'm in one of the least hellhole states there are, that must be it. Both my wife and I didn't have to pay anything. We have never gotten vaccinated at cvs before.
That's probably it then. My state's Health Services website has a form for reporting if a business forces you to mask, test, or vaccinate.
that is weird. You sure they just didn't have your insurance on file from prescriptions or something?
they've got the cheapest flu shots around, $25, while you're there
