Hospital care for unvaccinated adults infected with Covid-19 cost the U.S. healthcare system billions of dollars. According to a new report.
Specifically, the researchers estimated that in June and July, unvaccinated adults were hospitalized for Covid-19 and cost the healthcare system US$2.3 billion.
In the report, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Peterson Healthcare Center analyzed data from the Ministry of Health and Human Services to estimate the number of confirmed Covid-19 hospital admissions. The author of the report then checked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on Covid-19 hospitalizations among vaccinated people to estimate the proportion of unvaccinated adults hospitalized.
In June and July, researchers found that 185,000 new Covid-19 patients were admitted to the hospital, of which the vast majority (98.3%) were not vaccinated.
They then delved into the data to find out that the patients were mainly treated for Covid-19 and not hospitalized for other diseases. Based on data from CDC patients who were vaccinated on August 2, researchers estimate that 74% of these hospitalizations are mainly for Covid-19 treatment.
The next step involves the researchers adjusting the fact that even if the unvaccinated person is vaccinated, the vaccine cannot avoid hospitalization 100%. Once again, based on CDC data on the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing hospitalizations, researchers estimate that 84% of hospitalizations are mainly preventable due to Covid-19.
By multiplying the number of adults hospitalized primarily due to Covid by the percentage of hospitalizations preventable by vaccination, the researchers were able to estimate the number of preventable hospitalizations: 113,000.
Then multiplying that number by the average hospitalization cost for Covid-19, the researchers estimated it to be $20,000 after examining several sources, including medical insurance fee-for-service and FAIR Health analysis of private claims data.
Using this method, researchers found that there were 37,000 preventable Covid-19 hospitalizations in June, costing the U.S. health system about 700 million U.S. dollars, and in July there were 76,000 preventable hospitalizations, costing about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars , Bringing the total of these two months to approximately US$2.3 billion.
But this may be an underestimated figure.
The author of the report lists several reasons why the actual cost burden of Covid-19 treatment on the U.S. health system may be higher than US$2.3 billion, including the fact that the number of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths is steadily increasing, and cost reports are not included. The number of outpatient treatments in may be very high.
Photo: wildpixel, Getty Images
