Biden to announce health insurers must cover 100% of cost of at-home COVID tests

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President Biden delivers remarks on the administration's plans to fight COVID-19

President Biden is set to announce that health insurers must cover 100% of the cost of in-home COVID-19 tests as part of his winter plan to combat the pandemic.

"The President will announce his health insurance must cover 100% of the cost of at-home tests purchased by their members," a senior administration official said of the president's planned announcement.

The move will come as part of Biden's winter plan to combat COVID-19 as fears grow over the spread of the Omicron variant, with U.S. recording its first case of the new strain Wednesday.

President Biden. (Associated Press)

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Other measures the president plans to announce Thursday include increased access to vaccine boosters, launching more family vaccination clinics in an effort to get more kids vaccinated, distributing 50 million free tests throughout the country, and a requirement that all international travelers show a negative test one day being departure. 

A health care worker fills a syringe with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Oct. 5, 2021. (Associated Press)

"We will continue to act aggressively, we will continue to follow the science, we will continue to prepare for all scenarios and work day and night to protect the American people, keep our schools open, keep our economy growing and get this pandemic behind us," a senior administration official said.

Biden will also call on businesses to voluntarily implement a vaccine mandate as part of his announcement.

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"What we’re doing is what we’ve done all along, which is we’re asking businesses to step forward and do the right thing to protect our workers, protect our community and to put in place some sort of vaccination requirement or testing requirements for the workplace," a senior administration official said. "We know they work and we think it’s in the best interest of public health."

 President Joe Biden. (Reuters)

Left out are some of the more controversial proposals the White House was reportedly considering, including a requirement that all travelers quarantine for seven days after arriving in the country even if they receive a negative test, a rule that would have also applied to U.S. citizens. A failure to comply with the rule would have resulted in fines and penalties.