Unvaccinated Americans who were hospitalized with COVID-19 cost the U.S. health care 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. ” it’s probably an understatement, ”the researchers wrote.
The report analyzed CDC data, finding that there were 37,000 preventable COVID hospitalizations in June and another 76,000 in July among unvaccinated adults in the United States.
An average hospitalization for COVID costs about $ 20,000, according to the report, which means that “these largely preventable hospitalizations have already cost the U.S. health care system billions of dollars since early June.”
The report only focused on adult hospitalizations in the U.S., as some children are not yet eligible to receive the vaccine. It is estimated that 98.3% of adults hospitalized due to COVID in June and July were not vaccinated, according to the report.
The authors used conservative assumptions to reach the $ 2.3 billion figure, according to the report, which added that “this basic figure is probably a euphemism for the cost burden of the healthcare system arising from the treatment of COVID-19 between unvaccinated adults “.
“The monetary costs of treating people not vaccinated against COVID-19 are not only borne by patients, but also by society, more broadly,” the report’s authors wrote.
And while free vaccines have a social cost, as research, development, and distribution have been largely funded by the federal government, the report concludes that “vaccines save money in the U.S. health care system in the long one avoiding costly hospitalizations ”. ”
In addition to the direct monetary strain on the treatment of unvaccinated people, school reopening and economic recovery also continue to suffer, according to the report.
After a short-lived decline in new COVID cases just after vaccines became widely available earlier this year, cases have continued to rise in the United States this summer as the delta variant became the strain. dominant of the virus.
According to the CDC, the seven-day moving average as of Aug. 20 was 137,188 cases a day and 738 deaths a day. Hospitalizations rose 43 percent to 92,482, most since Feb. 6, according to the New York Times tracker.
Currently, approximately 51.5% of the total population is fully vaccinated and 71% of those who meet the requirements to receive the vaccine have received at least one vaccine. As the more contagious delta variant continues to spread, the herd’s immunity is even more 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, hospitalization and deaths, have been widely available since mid-April, but vaccination rates have stagnated in some states and among young people.
The FDA formally approved BioNTech BNTX,
and Pfizer PFE,
Monday the COVID-19 vaccine.
Read more: The FDA approves Pfizer’s COVID-19 trait, making it the first vaccine to receive “full” approval in the U.S.
Now that at least one vaccine has received full FDA approval, there is hope that vaccination rates could increase, as approximately 30% of unvaccinated American adults, according to a COVID-19 monitoring project from the Kaiser Family Foundation, they said they would be more likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine if it was fully approved by the FDA.