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At the drugstore, a rapid Covidtest usually costs less than $20.

Across the country, over a doz-en testing sites owned by thestart-up company GS Labs regu-larly bill $380.

There’s a reason they can.When Congress tried to ensurethat Americans wouldn’t have topay for coronavirus testing, it re-

quired insurers to pay certain lab-oratories whatever “cash price”they listed online for the tests,with no limit on what that mightbe.

GS Labs’s high prices and grow-

ing presence — it has performed ahalf-million rapid tests since thepandemic’s start, and still runsthousands daily — show how thegovernment’s longstanding reluc-tance to play a role in health priceshas hampered its attempt to pro-tect consumers. As a result, Amer-icans could ultimately pay some ofthe cost of expensive coronavirustests in the form of higher insur-

A $380 Covid Test, and the Law That Allows ItBy SARAH KLIFF Congress Made Insurers

Pay, but Set No Limit

Continued on Page A15

When Esias Johnson moved toNew York from his hometown in2019, chasing dreams of musicalstardom, his parents were terri-fied.

Mr. Johnson, then 21, had beendiagnosed with Asperger’s syn-drome as a child and sufferedfrom mental illness for much of his

young life, failing to fit in andeventually getting into troublewith the law. His family fearedthat a city full of strangers whocould not understand his strug-gles might swallow him.

But what happened was farworse than what they had imag-ined.

Almost as soon as he arrived inNew York from north of Boston,Mr. Johnson found himself in trou-ble with the law again. And as hismental illness worsened, mani-festing in increasingly frighteningways, Mr. Johnson was arrestedrepeatedly and taken, again and

Mentally Ill Man’s Death Spotlights Rikers CrisisBy JAN RANSOM

and JONAH E. BROMWICHInhumane Conditions

Tied to Low Staffing

Continued on Page A14

BERLIN — After 16 years of An-gela Merkel as their chancellor,Germans scattered their votesacross the political spectrum onSunday in the election to replaceher, a fractured return that her-alds a messier political era in Ger-many and weaker German leader-ship in Europe.

Preliminary results gave thecenter-left Social Democrats asmall lead, but were so close thatno one could yet say who the nextchancellor would be nor what thenext government would look like.

The only thing that seemedclear was that it would take weeksif not months of haggling to form acoalition, leaving Europe’s big-gest democracy suspended in akind of limbo at a critical momentwhen the continent is still strug-gling to recover from the pan-demic and France — Germany’spartner at the core of Europe —faces divisive elections of its ownnext spring.

Sunday’s election signaled theend of an era for Germany and forEurope. For over a decade, Ms.Merkel was not just chancellor ofGermany but effectively theleader of Europe. She steered hercountry and the continentthrough successive crises and inthe process helped Germany be-come Europe’s leading power forthe first time since two worldwars.

Her time in office was charac-terized above all by stability. Hercenter-right party, the ChristianDemocratic Union, has governedin Germany for 52 of the 72 post-war years, traditionally with onesmaller party.

But the campaign proved to bethe most volatile in decades. Ar-min Laschet, the candidate of Ms.Merkel’s Christian Democrats,was long seen as the front-runneruntil a series of blunders com-pounded by his own unpopularityeroded his party’s lead. OlafScholz, the Social Democratic can-didate, was counted out altogeth-er before his steady persona ledhis party to a spectacular 10-pointcomeback. And the Greens, whobriefly led the polls early on, fellshort of expectations but recordedtheir best result ever.

On Sunday, the Christian Demo-crats’ share of the vote collapsedwell below 30 percent, heading to-ward the worst showing in theirhistory. For the first time, threeparties will be needed to form acoalition — and both main partiesare planning to hold competingtalks to do so.

“It’s so unprecedented that it’snot even clear who talks withwhom on whose invitation aboutwhat, because the Constitutiondoes not have guardrails for a situ-ation like that,” said ThomasKleine-Brockhoff, the vice presi-dent of the German MarshallFund, a research group.

Even before the first official re-

NO CLEAR WINNERIN GERMAN VOTEFOR CHANCELLOR

END OF THE MERKEL ERA

Negotiations to Form a3-Party Coalition May

Take Months

By KATRIN BENNHOLD

Continued on Page A8

Green party backers Sunday in Berlin. The Greens, who led polling early on, fell short of expectations but had their best showing ever.KAY NIETFELD/DPA, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

RICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES

The American team won theRyder Cup against Europe inrecord fashion. Page D1.

A Firm U.S. Grip

The Trust Women clinic in Oklahoma City has seen a rise in patients arriving from Texas.NICK OXFORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

OKLAHOMA CITY — On awindy Tuesday morning, theparking lot outside a small brickbuilding on the Southside of Okla-homa City was filling up fast. Thefirst to arrive, a red truck shortlybefore 8 a.m., was from Texas. Sowas the second and the third.

The building houses one of Ok-lahoma’s four abortion clinics, andat least two-thirds of its scheduledpatients now come from Texas. Somany, in fact, that it is trying tohire more staff members and doc-tors to keep up. The increase is theresult of a new law in Texas ban-ning abortions after about sixweeks, a very early stage of preg-nancy. As soon as the measuretook effect this month, Texansstarted traveling elsewhere, andOklahoma, close to Dallas, has be-come a major destination.

“We had every line lit up foreight hours straight,” said Jenni-fer Reince, who works the frontdesk phones at the clinic, TrustWomen Oklahoma City, describ-ing the first week the measurewas in force.

The effects of the new law havebeen profound: Texans with un-wanted pregnancies have beenforced to make decisions quickly,and some have opted to travellong distances for abortions. Asclinics in surrounding states fillup, appointments are beingscheduled for later dates, makingthe procedures more costly. Other

women are having to carry theirpregnancies to term.

Marva Sadler, senior director ofclinic services at Whole Woman’sHealth, which operates four clin-ics in Texas, said she believed thatmany patients were not able to ar-range child care or take time offwork without losing their jobs totravel to other states.

“I think a majority of womenare being sentenced to being par-ents,” she said.

The law is the latest in a stringof successes by the anti-abortionmovement, which for years haspushed for more conservativejudges and control over state leg-islatures. Now, the Supreme Courtis preparing to take up an abortioncase — the first to be argued be-fore the court with all three of for-mer President Donald J. Trump’sconservative appointees — thathas the potential to remove fed-

Desperate and Leaving Texas to Have AbortionsBy SABRINA TAVERNISE

Continued on Page A15

New Law’s ProhibitionsDriving Women Into Neighboring States

BEIJING — In any other coun-try, the sudden collapse of a corpo-rate titan with more than $300 bil-lion in debt would send shockwaves across the economy. Head-lines would blare. Banks wouldshudder. Investors would panic.

A corporate collapse of thatscale may happen soon. But itwould be in China, where the Com-munist Party keeps a firm grip onmoney, corporate boardrooms,the news media and the broadersociety. Those controls may befacing one of their toughest testsyet, but Beijing is signaling that itfeels up to the challenge — even ifit will first try to teach big invest-ors and companies a bitter lessonabout lending recklessly.

The financial world is watchingthe struggles of China Ever-grande Group, one of the largestproperty developers on earth andcertainly the most indebted. Lastweek, a deadline to make an $83million payment to foreign invest-ors came and went with no indica-tion that Evergrande had met itsobligations, raising questionsabout what would happen if itshuge debt load went sour.

The Chinese government doesnot want to move in yet because ithopes Evergrande’s struggles willshow other Chinese companiesthat they need to be disciplined intheir finances, say people withknowledge of its deliberationswho insisted on anonymity. But ithas an array of financial tools thatit believes are strong enough tostem a financial panic if mattersworsen.

The government is “still goingto provide a guarantee” for muchof Evergrande’s activities, saidZhu Ning, deputy dean of theShanghai Advanced Institute of

China MovingTo Avoid PanicIn Its Economy

By KEITH BRADSHER

Continued on Page A10

WASHINGTON — For nearlytwo decades, lawmakers in Wash-ington have waged an escalatingdisplay of brinkmanship over thefederal government’s ability toborrow money to pay its bills.They have forced administrationsof both parties to take evasive ac-tions, pushing the nation danger-ously close to economic calamity.But they have never actuallytipped the United States into de-fault.

The dance is repeating this fall,but this time the dynamics are dif-ferent — and the threat of defaultis greater than ever.

Republicans in Congress haverefused to help raise the nation’sdebt limit, even though the need toborrow stems from the bipartisanpractice of running large budgetdeficits. Republicans agree theU.S. must pay its bills, but on Mon-day they are expected to block ameasure in the Senate that wouldenable the government to do so.Democrats, insistent that Repub-licans help pay for past decisionsto boost spending and cut taxes,have so far refused to use a specialprocess to raise the limit on theirown.

Observers inside and outsideWashington are worried neitherside will budge in time, roiling fi-nancial markets and capsizing theeconomy’s nascent recovery fromthe pandemic downturn.

If the limit is not raised or sus-pended, officials at the TreasuryDepartment warn, the govern-ment will soon exhaust its abilityto borrow money, forcing officialsto choose between missing pay-ments on military salaries, SocialSecurity benefits and the interestit owes to investors who have fi-nanced America’s spending spree.

Yet Republicans have threat-ened to filibuster any attempt bySenate Democrats to pass a sim-ple bill to increase borrowing.Party leaders like Senator MitchMcConnell of Kentucky want toforce Democrats to raise the limiton their own, through a fast-trackcongressional process that by-passes a Republican filibuster.That could take weeks to come to

Political GameIncreases OddsOf U.S. Default

Neither Party Budgeson Debt-Limit Vote

By JIM TANKERSLEY

Continued on Page A14

With a deadline on Monday, thousandsof health care workers in New York arerisking their jobs by not getting a co-ronavirus vaccine. PAGE A16

NATIONAL A11-16

Mass Firings Loom at HospitalsMillions of employees did not have theluxury of thinking about returning tothe office — they never left. Six workersshare their experiences. PAGE B4

BUSINESS B1-7

Stuck at WorkWith Roe v. Wade at stake, an Olympianexplains what having a choice meant toher. Sports of The Times. PAGE D1

SPORTS D1-7

Athletes for Abortion Rights

Charles M. Blow PAGE A19

OPINION A18-19

Cocaine farming, poverty and armedfactions persist in rural areas, despite a2016 treaty with rebels. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

Wartime Issues Dog Colombia

Five people remained hospitalized onSunday after eight of 10 passenger carsjumped off the tracks in Montana,killing three passengers. PAGE A11

Cause of Amtrak Crash Unclear

A former Guantánamo detainee hasspent the last 15 years in exile. Chinastill brands him as a terrorist. PAGE A7

Uyghur Stranded in AlbaniaJay Sandrich won Emmy Awards for“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and“The Cosby Show.” He was 89. PAGE D8

OBITUARIES, A17, D8

Director of Popular SitcomsThe craft chain Hobby Lobby has sueda former Oxford lecturer, asserting thathe sold it stolen artifacts. PAGE C1

Scholar Is Accused of Theft

Ferries in Alaska. Trains in Oregon. Thepending bill could reshape prioritiesacross the U.S., jump-starting projectsthat stalled over funding. PAGE A12

Big Infrastructure DreamsNew government rules further limitingminors’ playing time on video gameshave frustrated many. PAGE B1

Gamers Chafe in China A coach who took a plea deal says hisStanford colleagues knew where themoney was coming from. PAGE D3

Cog in an Admissions Scandal

Late Edition

VOL. CLXXI . . . . No. 59,194 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

The Tony Awards honored actors likeAaron Tveit, above, on Sunday, buttheater itself also triumphed. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-7

Broadway Celebrates Again

Today, sunny skies, patchy clouds,warm, high 80. Tonight, cloudy, low64. Tomorrow, a mix of clouds andsunshine, a few passing showers,high 75. Weather map is on Page C8.

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