It's reportedly costing billions of dollars to treat hospitalized unvaccinated COVID patients

[riversedge]

Source: the week




2:25 PM


A new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation pegged the preventable cost of hospitalizing and treating unvaccinated COVID patients between June and August at an estimated $5.7 billion, CNN reports.

Using data from both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service as well as health care studies, the report's authors found that each of the 287,000 "preventable" COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last three months cost around $20,000. When multiplied together, the two numbers amount to the $5.7 billion figure.

The analysis deems "preventable" hospitalizations to be "hospitalizations of unvaccinated adults for COVID-19 treatment primarily, while accounting for any post-vaccination infections that would have been expected if this population had been vaccinated," per CNN. The authors believe $5.7 billion to likely be "a conservative estimate of costs."

.................................................

Overall, the monetary cost of COVID treatment for the unvaccinated is important to note, the authors write, because it is "borne not only by patients but also by society more broadly, including taxpayer-funded public programs and private insurance premiums paid by workers, businesses, and individual purchasers."

Read more: https://theweek.com/coronavirus/1004848/its-reportedly-costing-billions-of-dollars-to-treat-hospitalized-unvaccinated

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I have not seen hardly any articles about the cost of hospitalization of these patients.


Very short article. I wish it would have included whether the people had insurance or not.

[Lucky Luciano]

1. These should become medical bankruptcies...and they would be well deserved.

[C Moon]

2. What do you say about that all of you a-hole anti-vaxxers?

Quit posting on DU, you're feeble lies are not wanted or needed.

[Elessar Zappa]

9. Anyone who posts

anti-vax crap on this site should have their account disabled. That kind of bullshit is dangerous.

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. The true cost of Freedumb.

Ready to pay for your beliefs anti-vaxxers? Don't make the rest of us pay for your stupidity. No Vax? No ICU.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Not vaccinated?

Don't go to the hospital. Really. Don't go.

If you do go, and the hospital learns you're unvaccinated, they should refuse to treat you. Period. No further discussion. Go home. Recover on your own or die. Make sure you have your funeral prepaid.

[cadoman]

5. in fairness there needs to be an exemption for the unvaccinated who have not hit their 14 days

For instance kids and younger people who only recently had the chance to be blessed with vaccination because they were waiting for final approval or lots to arrive.

They still deserve medical care even though they are technically "unvaccinated" till 14 days after their second shot.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Remind me exactly how long the vaccine has been available?

Only 14 days ago? Well, no. With children under the age of 12 I am understanding that the vaccine was available for that age group back in May. It's now September. You do the math.

I keep on seeing bullshit crap about parents wanting to wait for the vaccine for the kids to be somehow validated. Well, okay. Wait for total and complete and 100% assurance the vaccine is good, but until then, I'll say what I've been saying for a while which is, if you don't get the vaccine then don't go to a hospital if you get sick. Don't. Stay home. Trust your immune system to protect you. Oh, and hopefully you've made out a will.

[IronLionZion]

12. It's not yet approved for under 12, Pfizer has applied for 5-11 approval

Older than 12 got approval back in May

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. Yes, I know that.

But everyone older than 12 should be vaccinated. I realize that the kids under age 18 may need parental permission, but I have zero patience or sympathy for anyone over 18 not vaccinated.

[cadoman]

16. also as booster mandates emerge, rolling swaths of the country will potentially be unvaccinated

We don't know what the exact schedule is but it appears that boosters will be a given eventually, as you see it happening in more progressive countries.

That means eventually the high-risk persons who got the first round of vaccines will become unvaccinated until they get their third dose. They still deserve medical care though because they are complying with the mandate as best that future vaccine distribution allows. The way this could be handled in the system is you visit the vaccine center at your scheduled time (say once a month), and as long as you accept whatever vaccine is available you are marked as compliant because you cared enough to do the right thing and keep your appointment. Think of it like a license plate tag that you need to renew monthly.

Only persons who are rejecting the mandate will be blocked from healthcare.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. I am one who thinks we should not be getting boosters

until more people in the rest of the world get vaccinated. The current one or two dose vaccines are still highly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.

[dem in texas]

6. I wondered when some expert would put the dollars to it.

I am an old accountant and I always see events in relation to numbers. I had wondered how much the anti-vacers were costing the taxpayers with their hospitalizations and medical care. Now we are getting some numbers.

Maybe this will wake up some of these foolish anti-mask and tape worm pill poppers. Probably not because they are too stupid to look beyond the lies on Fox News and Facebook.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Why all health insurers should put a hefty surcharge on

the unvaxxed's premiums.

[Ford_Prefect]

10. I doubt this includes the ongoing effective costs of supporting Long COVID or those permanently

disabled by the disease.

The long term costs could equal 2 to 5 times the initial phase, if not far more. I doubt that this costing takes into account the loss of medical practitioners and personnel, or the future cost of replacing them. Not to mention training additional people to care for those with ongoing or life-long issues and building the medical infrastructure to support such care.

I also doubt they have considered how future waves of variants will affect costs or resources. I likewise doubt there is any attempt to value the cost to the national economy either presently or in the future.

[area51]

11. +1 n/t

[IronLionZion]

13. That complicates the funding and cost analysis

since some folks have been sick longer than others, and would have gotten sick before being eligible for the vaccine, or were unable to get the vaccine because they were sick, or so on. There is differing local guidance on this. Some long COVID sufferers have gotten better after taking the vaccine because it helped their immune system get stronger enough to fight off an existing infection.

Many of the government programs to pay for treatment were temporary with the expectation that people would be vaccinated and this pandemic would end soon. So there are news stories of patients getting exorbitant hospital bills they can't afford. And then families get bills after a loved one died.

It would be a miracle if the US somehow got enough support to pass single payer after this experience. I'm thinking of Europe after WWII.

[BlueIdaho]

14. When the federal government decides

To turn this whole mess over to your private health insurance company - you will really hear some screaming and shouting…