The days of full covid coverage are over. Insurers are restoring deductibles and co-pays

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/18/covid-hospital-bills-insurance-deductible/

In 2020, as the pandemic took hold, U.S. health insurance companies declared they would cover 100 percent of the costs for covid treatment, waiving co-pays and expensive deductibles for hospital stays that frequently range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But this year, most insurers have reinstated co-pays and deductibles for covid patients, in many cases even before vaccines became widely available. The companies imposed the costs as industry profits remained strong or grew in 2020, with insurers paying out less to cover elective procedures that hospitals suspended during the crisis.

Now the financial burden of covid is falling unevenly on patients across the country, varying widely by health-care plan and geography, according to a survey of the two largest health plans in every state by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=916

.....“There was no federal mandate for insurers to cover all the costs for covid treatment. Insurers were doing it voluntarily,” said Krutika Amin, a Kaiser Family Foundation associate director who researchers health insurance practices.

Last year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 88 percent of people covered by private insurance had their co-pays and deductibles for covid treatment waived. By August 2021, only 28 percent of the two largest plans in each state and D.C. still had the waivers in place, and another 10 percent planned to phase them out by the end of October, the Kaiser survey found. Its survey this year of employer-sponsored plans reflected similar patterns.

“For some people, deductibles can be over $8,000 for a hospital stay,” Amin said. “It will really depend on what plan they have.”

[Hekate]

1. This is so scary

[captain queeg]

2. I generally never stand on the side of insurance, but in this case I can see where they are coming

from. Though I think it ought to only apply to unvaccinated. It probably doesn’t. So one more way the anti vaxers are screwing things up for others.

[cstanleytech]

4. Aye, the people that refuse to take the vaccine should be the ones that have to pay.

[BigmanPigman]

3. In 2016 I was in the hospital for 4 days...

Blue Shield covered about $30,000 and I had to pay $3,000 (more than a month's fixed income). How many people who have Covid are able to pay that? Multiply it by 10 and that is probably the cost to stay in a hospital due to Covid related issues....much more than my experience. Is everyone going to start Go Fund Me sites if they can't afford it? Are they going to go bankrupt?

[brewens]

5. The fact that they could let everyone slide when they wanted to should tell us something.

Think about it. If it was really necessary for them to be sucking up all that money all the time, cutting it off should cause a catastrophic meltdown but didn't. The truth is they could probably afford to cover it all, even if it went on for ten years. The last thing they want is for everyone to realize that.

[Vinca]

6. If hospital bills were published in local papers, the vaccination rate would skyrocket.

A whole lot of people will be wishing they had died of Covid.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. Most insurance plans stop waiving costs of COVID hospitalizations

Link to tweet

— If you're currently unvaccinated for COVID-19, get ready to start paying more for COVID hospital care and possibly health insurance.

Early in the pandemic, many insurance companies were waiving the costs of hospital care for COVID patients. Now, most of those cost-waivers are coming to an end.

In November 2020, 88% of health insurance group plans waived all costs associated with COVID-19 hospital stays, according to a study by KFF, a nonprofit, health policy analysis group.


By October 2021, 82% of health insurance plans will no longer dismiss those expenses, the study said.

“What that means for patients is if you have a COVID-related hospital stay, you're going to be on the hook for your deductible and your co-insurance, which could be thousands of dollars,” said Cynthia Cox, vice president of KFF and co-author of the study.

One reason health insurers were voluntarily waiving COVID hospital costs is they wanted to avoid a federal mandate from Congress, according to Cox.

“If there had been a federal mandate, they would not have been able to stop waiving those costs when they wanted to,” said Cox.