US insurance companies may withhold payment to unvaccinated

In a move designed to encourage millions of unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated, an increasing number of insurance companies will no longer pay all or part of the cost of care if a person gets COVID-19.

The cost of hospital care for a patient with COVID-19 can be as high as $50,000 for a long stay, according to healthcare officials. In the US, patients don't typically pay for all of their treatment as many have private insurers and government-sponsored programs like Medicare and Medicaid to cover medical expenses.

But now that there are three COVID-19 vaccines widely available and free in the US, at least 70 percent of the country's largest insurers will no longer waive COVID-19 treatment costs, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).

That could affect the 80 million unvaccinated Americans who are at increased risk from the virus.

At the beginning of the pandemic, 90 percent of those with insurance who were hospitalized would have their out-of-pocket costs waived, according to KFF.

However, in a recent survey of the two largest insurers in each state and Washington DC, an additional 10 percent of firms said that they will cancel their existing cost-sharing measures by the end of October, according to CBS News.

Health officials said they hoped that will drive unvaccinated workers to get the shot.

In cities such as New York and San Francisco, people must show proof of vaccination to dine indoors at a restaurant, visit bars or the gym and take part in other group activities.

US President Joe Biden is increasing the pressure on unvaccinated people. He ordered earlier this month that all federal employees and healthcare workers must be vaccinated, along with people at companies with more than 100 employees, or the company could face a fine. The president also wants large-scale entertainment and sports venues to request proof of vaccination from attendees.

"We've been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us," Biden scolded unvaccinated Americans in a speech on Sept 9. Biden and other government officials have labeled the resurgence of the virus the "pandemic of the unvaccinated".

People who are unvaccinated are 11 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those who are vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found this month. But public health experts note that the vaccinated can also catch the virus, particularly as the Delta variant surges.

An analysis by KFF and the Peterson Center on Healthcare also found that the cost of treating unvaccinated Americans over a three-month span this summer cost $5.7 billion. Of 287,000 hospitalizations among unvaccinated people between June and August, the cost of care was on average $20,000 per person, the analysis said.

"This ballpark figure is likely an understatement of the cost burden from preventable treatment of COVID-19 among unvaccinated adults," it noted.

The analysis added that the cost was "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 data was taken from hospital admissions, public health data and information from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Dr William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, said that the discrepancies over what parts of the population take the vaccine compared with those who don't will mean that some communities will have more cases of COVID-19 than others.

Schaffner told China Daily: "For example, in Tennessee, the cities have a higher proportion of vaccine accepters than the rural communities, so it's really quite possible that this virus could continue to smolder in these under immunized, relatively speaking, sparsely populated communities for quite some time. So, there will be distinctions within states of how much COVID is out there in your particular town."