Unvaccinated patients cost U.S. health system billions in preventable hospitalizations
In June and July, the U.S. health system spent $2.3 billion on unvaccinated individuals who were hospitalized because of COVID-19.
Photo: Mareen Fischinger/Getty Images
As the highly contagious Delta variant continues to wreak havoc across the United States, causing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths to rise, being unvaccinated is proving to be both dangerous and costly.
In fact, between June and July of this year, the U.S. health system spent $2.3 billion caring for unvaccinated individuals who were hospitalized because of COVID-19, according to a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Of the 185,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations in June and July, an estimated 98.3% were for people who skipped out on getting vaccinated. The KFF projects that 113,000 of these hospitalizations would have been prevented had they gotten the jab.
Using data from previous studies, the researchers estimate the typical cost of a COVID-19 hospitalization to fall around $20,000. But, they say this likely falls short of the actual cost of care, since they didn't take into account the cost of outpatient care, the payer mix for COVID-19 hospitalizations among the non-elderly or the typical hospitalization cost for Medicaid patients. They also didn't account for geographical price differences.
The report took data from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make its claims.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Although patients must cover a share of their COVID-19 hospitalizations, it is much smaller than what private and public insurers have to pay. For example, the report used the average out-of-pocket cost privately insured patients hospitalized with pneumonia pay – $1,300 – to illustrate the difference in payments.
"The monetary cost of treating unvaccinated people for COVID-19 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," the researchers said in the report.
It also points out that, while the public had to pay a hefty price to develop safe and effective vaccines, they will ultimately save the health system money by preventing costly hospitalizations.
Further, unvaccinated individuals face more than monetary perils as the nation recovers and opens back up. They also put themselves at risk for avoidable illness and death, the report says.
THE LARGER TREND
All told, the cost of COVID-19 care could cost payers $546.6 billion, according to estimates from America's Health Insurance Plans.
COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. first hit the market under emergency use authorization in December and have been widely available since April. Earlier this week, the FDA granted full approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech shot, which will now be marketed as Comirnaty.
More than 171 million Americans are fully vaccinated, representing 51.5% of the total population, according to the CDC. Yet a substantial portion of the population remains unvaccinated as vaccination rates lag in certain states and among younger people.
Twitter: @HackettMallory
Email the writer: mhackett@himss.org
