Potentially preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations have cost the U.S. billions of dollars, a new analysis finds.
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) looked at hospitalization costs for unvaccinated people across the country since June 2021.
Researchers estimate that 287,000 hospitalizations have occurred over the past three months, including 187,000 in August alone.
Each one of these hospitalizations costs an average of $20,000, meaning that there was $5.7 billion in preventable health care spending over the past three months.
Researchers from KFF also note that this is a conservative estimate, meaning the true costs could be even higher.
A KFF analysis finds that more than $5.7 billion was spent by Americans on preventable Covid hospitalizations from June to August 2021
Researchers estimate that 287,000 hospitalizations have occurred over the past three months, mostly unvaccinated adults. Pictured: Staff members help a newly arriving 81-year-old COVID-19 patient get settled into the ICU ward at Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, December 2020
Every single adult in the U.S. has been eligible for the Covid vaccine since about May with every state fully opening its rollout in the spring.
This means that, in practice, 250 million Americans are able to get the jabs – barring specific medical or religious circumstances preventing it and not including teens aged 12 and older, who are also eligible.
Many have still not received the shots, however.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 74 percent of eligible Americans have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine and 63 percent are fully vaccinated.
Adults, in particular, who are unvaccinated are making up almost all of the people hospitalized with the virus.
The KFF report estimates that 84 percent of the 456,000 Covid-related hospitalizations among unvaccinated people from June to August could have been prevented by vaccination.
Around $600 million was lost due to these preventable hospitalizations in June and $1.4 billion in July.
August was a particularly brutal month for the unvaccinated, with more than 100,000 people hospitalized, and $3.7 billion was lost.
‘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 wrote.
They also note that unvaccinated people with the virus also may have spread the virus more than vaccinated people, causing even more harm and costing more financially.
“Additionally, although breakthrough infections and hospitalizations are rare, unvaccinated people are also more likely to spread the virus to those who have taken measures to protect themselves and others, and those costs are not included in these estimates,” researchers wrote.
Health officials in the U.S have been using whatever tools they have at their disposal to get the remaining eligible Americans vaccinated.
Last week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order forcing every company that employs more than 100 people in the U.S. to institute a vaccine mandate or conduct weekly testing.
He also will require all federal employees and federal contractors to get jabbed in order to keep their jobs as well.
Additionally, any organization that receives Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement will have to ensure its employees are vaccinated, essentially mandating the shots for healthcare workers.
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