Why is it that nucleic acid testing used to be free, but now it is charged?

Why is it that nucleic acid testing used to be free, but now it is charged? According to Yang Yuru, chief of the CDC of Xiangyang Health and Health Commission, at present, with the upsurge of returning to production, some Xiangyang citizens may need to provide nucleic acid test results to the local area when they return to other places, and some citizens are worried that they are asymptomatic infected and want to be tested. These are the individual needs of citizens, so they need to be solved at their own expense. (This newspaper April 14)

Not only Xiangyang, Wuhan, Qianjiang and other places have also changed from "free" to charging. For example, in Wuhan, the nucleic acid test is conducted in 260 yuan/time, in Qianjiang, and in 260 yuan/time, and in Xiangyang, the price is 270 yuan/person. In Hunan and other places, nucleic acid testing also needs to be paid at its own expense.

The "free" of nucleic acid testing makes it difficult for many citizens to understand. Is this a kind of "getting rich by taking advantage of the epidemic"? Nucleic acid testing is "free", will the treatment fee for COVID-19 patients be "free"? Such concerns are obviously unnecessary, but the public's concerns should also be reasonably alleviated.

In fact, at the beginning of the epidemic, in order to cut off the source of infection, quickly diagnose patients, find infected people in time and isolate them, free testing was carried out. But now that the domestic epidemic situation has been well controlled, there is no need to "cast a net" to diagnose patients, and there is no need to continue to implement free nucleic acid testing. If we continue to carry out free nucleic acid testing, it will increase the pressure and financial burden of the hospital. It is not excluded that some people will conduct unnecessary tests for free, which will lead to the waste of medical resources.

However, the cost of nucleic acid detection should be reduced as much as possible, and the fees should not be too high. For example, the charge for nucleic acid testing cannot be much higher than the cost price. The cost standard of nucleic acid detection varies from place to place. For example, in Hunan, the standard of charging patients by public medical institutions is 40 yuan/person; The charging standard of private testing institutions designated by third parties shall not be higher than 160 yuan/person.

Earlier, some media reported that in some places, nucleic acid testing proved fraud. Excessive cost and troublesome testing may make some people choose to issue false certificates, increasing the risk of epidemic spread. Therefore, it is understandable that nucleic acid detection is "free of charge", but the charge should not be too high and the charge standard should be made public. At the same time, epidemic prevention and control cannot be relaxed.