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Unvaccinated Americans who were hospitalized with COVID-19 cost the U.S. healthcare system $ 2.3 billion in June and July, according to a new report from the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation – and that’s “probably an understatement,” the researchers wrote. .
The report analyzed data from the CDC, finding that there were 37,000 preventable hospitalizations for COVID in June and another 76,000 in July among unvaccinated adults in the United States.
An average COVID hospitalization costs around $ 20,000, according to the report, meaning that “these largely preventable hospitalizations have already cost the U.S. health care system billions of dollars since early June.”
The report only looked at adult hospitalizations in the United States, as some children are still not eligible to receive the vaccine. An estimated 98.3% of adults hospitalized with COVID in June and July were not vaccinated, according to the report.
The authors used conservative assumptions to arrive at the figure of $ 2.3 billion, according to the report, adding that “this rough figure is likely an underestimate of the financial burden on the health system of treating COVID-19 in unvaccinated adults ”.
“The monetary cost of treating people not vaccinated for COVID-19 is borne not only by patients but also by society in general,” the report’s authors wrote.
And while there is a societal cost to free vaccines – as research, development, and distribution have been largely funded by the federal government – the report concludes that “vaccines save America’s health care system money. long-term money by avoiding costly hospitalizations. “
In addition to direct monetary pressure from treating unvaccinated people, the reopening of schools and economic recovery also continue to suffer, according to the report.
After a short-lived drop in new COVID cases just after vaccines became widely available earlier this year, cases continued to rise in the United States this summer as the delta variant became the dominant strain of the virus .
The seven-day moving average as of August 20 was 137,188 cases per day and 738 deaths per day, according to the CDC. Hospitalizations rose 43% to 92,482, the highest since Feb.6, according to the New York Times tracker.
About 51.5% of the total population is now fully vaccinated, and 71% of those who qualify for the vaccine have received at least one injection. As the most contagious delta variant continues to spread, herd immunity is even further out of reach. Experts say up to 85% or 90% of the population will need to be immune to the virus to achieve herd immunity.
See also: As the most contagious delta variant circulates, public health experts say herd immunity has become an even more distant goal
The report notes that vaccines – which are highly effective in preventing serious illness, hospitalizations and death – have been widely available since mid-April, but vaccination rates have stagnated in some states and among young people.
The FDA has officially approved BioNTech BNTX,
and Pfizer’s PFE,
COVID-19 vaccine Monday.
Read more: FDA approves Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, making it the first vaccine to receive “full” approval in the United States
Now that at least one vaccine has received full FDA approval, it is hoped that vaccination rates could increase, as about 30% of unvaccinated U.S. adults, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation COVID-19 tracking project. , said they would be more likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine if it was fully approved by the FDA.
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