At a White House briefing earlier this week, Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki was asked an extremely straightforward question by NPR’s Mara Liasson: Why doesn’t the United States government simply make COVID-19 testing free or even mail tests to every American household?

It was perfectly reasonable to ask considering that extensive free testing is already underway in several countries throughout the world — and still more reasonable given the plan announced by the Biden administration last week, which will allow people to get reimbursed for tests through their private insurance plans.

It’s as convoluted and as quintessentially American a solution as one could possibly imagine. Rather than simply offering tests for free from a government website (something the UK has done with no trouble), the administration’s model will instead force people to purchase them from pharmacies at market prices, obtaining reimbursement through bureaucratized health insurance schemes that an estimated 28 million Americans (or nearly 9 percent of the population) don’t even have. Though some at-home tests will be set aside for those without insurance, it’s as yet unclear whether there will be adequate supply and merely underscores, yet again, the absurdity of tying health insurance to employment.