Hesitancy probably accounts for tens of billions of dollars in preventable hospitalisation costs, say experts
Nearly a year after Covid-19 vaccines became freely available in the US, one-fourth of American adults remain unvaccinated, and a picture of the economic cost of vaccine hesitancy is emerging. It points to financial risk for individuals, companies and publicly funded programmes.
Some employers are looking to pass along a risk premium to unvaccinated workers, not unlike how smokers can be required to pay higher health premiums. One airline said it will charge unvaccinated workers $200 extra a month in insurance. As the pandemic enters its third year, the number of US patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 is near a 17-month low. Most Americans are vaccinated, and the country is regaining a semblance of normalcy, even as authorities predict a coming uptick in infections from the BA.2 sub-variant.
If vaccine hesitancy accounted for half of the more than 1-million new US Covid-19 hospitalisation since December, the added cost of preventable hospital stays could amount to another $10bn. Now that Americans have the choice to protect themselves with vaccines, insurance companies are requiring patients to bear more of these costs, but “many people do not have enough money to pay”, Amin said.More recent data — covering the Omicron wave — underscores the risk for the unvaccinated. During January in New York State, unvaccinated adults were more than 13 times as likely to be hospitalised with Covid-19 than fully vaccinated adults, state health department figures show.
Covid-19 vaccines have become a political flashpoint, and vaccination rates vary widely by region: In Vermont, public health data shows 84% of those 18 and up are fully vaccinated, while the rate is just above 60% in Alabama. A tiny minority of healthcare workers countrywide have been fired or placed on work leave because they chose to remain unvaccinated, but the dismissals still amount to thousands of layoffs, according to a report from Fierce Healthcare, which tracks the trend.
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