Hospital Bills of Unvaccinated Americans Cost Almost $6 Billion

Based on the Kaiser Family Foundation statistics, the cost of treating unvaccinated American COVID-19 patients was at least $3.7 billion in August and $5.7 billion since June, as the disease ravages those who refuse to acquire free, very effective vaccination.

Furthermore, Kaiser’s study shows that almost 187,000 Covid-19 hospitalizations might have been easily avoided by vaccination in August, up from 68,000 in July and 32,000 in June. Thus, these avoidable hospitalizations cost the U.S. healthcare system over $5.7 billion in the last three months, based on the average Covid-19 hospital bill of around $20,000 per Forbes.

Hospital for COVID-19 patients in the U.S. (Photo: Getty Images)

Who Pays for the Hospital Bills of COVID-19 Patients?

In a recently published article in CBS News, COVID-19 patients aren’t usually responsible for the entire expense of Treatment. Instead, most people rely on private insurance and government-sponsored healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid to cover their medical costs. Furthermore, according to KFF-Peterson, which collaborates to track the quality and price of health care, extended hospital stays could have been avoided because most individuals in the United States have had access to effective vaccination since last spring. COVID-19 vaccinations have been shown in studies to be quite effective at keeping people out of the hospital.

According to a separate KFF investigation, insurance companies are progressively moving part of the cost of treating COVID-19 to unvaccinated persons. In the early days of the pandemic, when there was no vaccine, most private insurance waived cost-sharing for COVID-19 patients or even covered the entire cost of therapy.

According to KFF, approximately 90% of insured people hospitalized for COVID-19 would have had their out-of-pocket costs — including copays, coinsurance, and deductible payments — canceled by November 2020.

According to Kaiser, which polled the two largest insurers in each state and Washington, D.C., more than 70% of the nation’s major insurers are no longer waiving COVID-19 treatment expenses because vaccines are widely available. By the end of October, another 10% of plans intend to phase out cost-sharing.