Nearly a year after Covid vaccines became available in the US, It points to financial risk for individuals, companies and publicly funded programs.
Vaccine hesitation probably already accounts for tens of billions of dollars in preventable US. It. Hospitalization costs and up to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, say public health experts.
For people who fail vaccination, the risks can include layoffs and inability to collect unemployment, higher insurance premiums, growing out-of-pocket medical costs or loss of academic scholarships.
For employers, vaccine hesitation can contribute to short-staff jobs. For taxpayers, this could mean a financial drain on programs such as Medicare, which provides healthcare for seniors.
Some employers seek to pass on a risk premium to unvaccinated workers, unlike smokers may be required to pay higher health premiums. One airline said it would charge unvaccinated workers $ 200 extra a month in insurance.
“When the vaccines emerged, it seemed like everyone wanted one and the big question was how long it would take to meet the demand,” said Kosali Simon, a professor of health economics at Indiana University. “It did not occur to me that a year later we would be studying the costs of people not wanting the vaccines.”
Alicia Royce, a 38-year-old special education teacher in Coachella, California, opted out of getting the COVID vaccine or her two vaccine-eligible children getting it. Royce’s parents received the shot, but she was concerned about issues including reports of adverse reactions.
The decision put Royce in a delicate place. Her school, like others in California, began a vaccination mandate for staff last year. Meanwhile, Royce has a religious exemption and is tested for COVID twice a week before entering the classroom. The situation prompted her family to plan a move to Alabama, where the schools did not set mandates, after the school year.
“I’ll get paid less,” said Royce, who expects to take a $ 40,000-a-year payment. “But I move for my own personal freedom to choose.”
Preventable care, billions in costs
When the pandemic enters its third year, the number of US. It. Patients hospitalized with COVID is almost 17-month low. Most Americans are vaccinated, and the country regains a symbol of normalcy, even as authorities predict a coming uptick in infections of the BA.2 sub-variant.
But as millions return to offices, public transportation and other social settings, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures show that nearly 25% of US. The number of people seeking a first COVID vaccine in the US. It. Fell to 14-month lows.
Vaccines have proven to be a powerful tool against the virus. CDC figures from the Delta wave of 2021 found that unvaccinated Americans have four times greater risk of being infected, and nearly 13 times higher risk of death from COVID. The disparities are even greater for those who received booster shots, which are 53 times less likely to die from COVID. Less than half of the vaccinated population in the country has so far received a booster.
In a December study, the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracked U.S. It. Health policy and results, estimated that between June and November 2021, unvaccinated American adults accounted for $ 13.8 billion in “preventable” covid hospitalization costs nationwide.
Kaiser estimated that over the six-month period, which included the Delta Wave, vaccinations could have avoided 59% of COVID hospitalizations among U.S. citizens. It. Kaiser has saved 690,000 vaccine-preventable hospitals, at an average cost of $ 20,000. And it estimated vaccinations may have prevented 163,000 US. It. Deaths at the same time.
If vaccination hesitation accounted for half of the more than 1 million new US. It. COVID hospitalizations Since December, the added costs of preventable hospital stays could be an additional $ 10 billion, Reuters concluded.
One thing is clear: how US. It. Insurance providers and hospital networks reckon with vaccination hesitation, it is likely that patients hospitalized for COVID will end up with a larger portion of the bill.
“These hospitals are not only devastating for patients and their families, but could also put patients on the hook for thousands of dollars,” Krutika Amin, an Kaiser Associate director and one of the co-authors of December study, told Reuters. Unlike earlier in the pandemic, Amin said, most private health insurers have stopped weaving cost-sharing or deductibles for COVID patients who end up hospitalized.
For some insurance plans, the costs for a hospitalized COVID patient can exceed $ 8,000 just for “in-network” services, she added. These expenses may balloon for the uninsured and those who turn to out-of-network care.
Now that Americans have the choice to protect themselves with vaccines, insurance companies require patients to bear more of the costs, but “many people do not have enough money to pay,” said Amin.
More recent data – covering the Omicron wave – undercuts the risk for unvaccinated. During January in New York State, unvaccinated adults were more than 13 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than fully vaccinated adults, the State Health Department figures show.
Political Flashpoint
Spent billions to get vaccination shot in arms, including more than $ 19.3 billion to help develop vaccines, federal reports show.
Still, the United States has one of the largest covid vaccination rates among highly developed countries, because some question the need for shot or breasts by government or workplace mandates.
“The subset of the population that is really anti-COVID vaccine, ready to quit jobs or try to go to work, is now pretty hardened,” said Julie Downs, a professor of social psychology at Carnegie Melon University.
COVID vaccines have become a political flashpoint, and vaccination rates vary widely by region: In Vermont, public health data show 84% of those 18 and older are fully vaccinated, while the rate is just above 60% in Alabama.
Nearly 76% of people in the United States have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, CDC data show, but the fully vaccinated figure – across all age groups – stands at 64%. The Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved a COVID vaccine for children under 5.
Perhaps the biggest financial risk vaccine holdouts have faced is getting away from their jobs, said Kaiser’s Amin.
New York City, which is demanding that vaccinators be vaccinated by city workers, shot dead more than 1,400 of those who did not get the vaccine by the state last month, while about 9,000 other workers remained in the process of seeking release. The demand, city. Figures show. The vast majority of the city’s 370,000-person workforce has been vaccinated.
A Kaiser Family Foundation nationwide survey in October found that about a quarter of workers said their employer required proof of vaccination. Only 1% of the surveyed workers – and 5% of unvaccinated workers – reported that they had left a job due to a vaccine mandate in the workplace.
A tiny minority of healthcare workers nationwide have been fired or placed on probation because they chose to remain unvaccinated, but the dismissal still reaches thousands of layoffs, according to a report by Fierce Healthcare, which tracks the trend.
No-vax tax
Giant employers including JP Morgan and Bank of America have informed their US. It. Employees can expect to pay more – or receive fewer perks through company wellness programs – if they do not provide proof of vaccination.
Other companies have extended an insurance premium surcharge for unvaccinated spouses or family members of employees if they want to be insured as a dependent under an employee’s health plan.
And after global life insurance providers are hit with a higher-than-expected $ 5.5 billion in claims in the first nine months of 2021, insurers will look to calibrate premiums more closely to address mortality risks ahead, Reuters reported.
Vaccination status and other health risks – such as obesity or smoking – are metrics that life insurers can probe when customers seek coverage. Affordable Care Act, people seeking health insurance can not be denied for pre-existing conditions, including COVID, or charging more for not being vaccinated. But companies that cover some of employees’ health insurance costs can pass higher costs to unvaccinated employees.
Delta Airlines said last year it would charge employees who have not been vaccinated an extra $ 200 per month for health insurance. The airline said the extra charge reflects the higher risk of COVID hospitalization for those employees, noting that employee hospitalizations for COVID have cost $ 50,000 each until now, on average.
University students can also have financial consequences for opting out. At least 500 US. It. Colleges have vaccination mandates, some exclude enrollment or in-person schooling for those who do not comply, or require them to undergo frequent COVID testing.
Kait Corrigan said she enrolled in a master’s program in theology at Boston University this year and was offered an academic degree. Corrigan, who has led public activism efforts against vaccine mandates, said she had received a religious exemption from the school’s vaccine mandate, but the school demanded that she take regular nasal swab tests to participate. Corrigan said she refused to submit to nasal tests for “medical reasons.”
The university suspended her and withdrew funding, she said. “It was a big loss.” Boston University did not respond to a request for comment.
Now in New York, Corrigan says she is campaigning for a congressional seat as a Republican. Her platform: “Medical Freedom.”
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