America's covid-19 vaccination rate for children 12 years and older is 60%. This is not enough to achieve so-called herd immunity. In states like Missouri, where a lot of counties have rates below 25%, hospitals are often overwhelmed by severe outbreaks of the more contagious Delta variant.There are many reasons vaccine resisters refuse to receive the shots or ignore efforts to encourage them to get vaccinated. The campaigns urging Americans not to get vaccinated have failed to work. There have been lotteries in the United States that offered millions of dollars or college scholarships.Yet, there are still a lot of people who have not been vaccinated. Because of fear that they might provoke backlash, both federal, state, and local governments, as well as private companies, continue to avoid mandating their employees.What about an economic argument? To protect your wallet, get a Covid shot.In the US, hospitalizations with Covid can result in huge bills. The bills submitted by Covid patients to the NPR Kaiser Health News Bill of the month project include a $17,000 bill to cover a short hospital stay in Marietta (reduced down to $4,000 for an insured patient under a charity policy); a $104,000 bill to cover a 14-day hospitalization for an uninsured person in Miami; and a bill possibly for hundreds of thousands to pay for a two-week hospitalization for a tourist from Hawaii who had travel insurance that excluded pandemic exclusion.Insurance companies may negotiate lower prices and cover a lot of the costs of care. However, a $1,000 out-of pocket bill for adeductibleplus copays plus some out-of network care is a scary incentive.Prior to Covid vaccines, major private insurers had stopped paying coinsurance and deductibles for patients in 2020. Many, if not all, have let that policy lapse. Aetna ended the policy on February 28th. UnitedHealthcare started rolling back waivers in late last year, and they were overturned by March 31st.Unvaccinated patients accounted for more than 97% of all hospitalized patients in the last month. Although the vaccines won't prevent you from contracting the coronavirus in your body, they will ensure that you have a less severe case.This is why there is logic behind insurance waiver rollback. Why should patients be financially protected from what could have been prevented by a vaccine the government paid for and was made free of charge to them? It can be purchased in most drugstores and at bus stops as well as at bus stops and highway rest stops.People who refuse to get vaccinated and contract the disease could face harsh penalties in a more severe society. The National Football League recently ruled that teams would forfeit games cancelled due to a Covid epidemic among unvaccinated participants. Players on both teams will not be compensated.Insurance companies could do more than penalize those who are not vaccinated. There is precedent. Some policies don't cover the treatment required by insurance companies for risky behaviors, like rock climbing and scuba diving.Insurers can charge smokers upto 50% more than nonsmokers for certain health plans under the Affordable Care Act. While four-fifths follow this protocol, most employer-based plans don't. People caught driving without insurance in 49 states face penalties, confiscation, loss of license and jail. Unscrupulous drivers are more likely to pay for insurance.These policies are based on the idea that offenders' behavior can cause harm to others and cost society a lot. A person who refuses to be vaccinated or contracts Covid can expose others at work or in their communities. The tens of thousands or hundreds of thousand spent on their care could also result in higher insurance premiums next year. Moreover, vaccine-resistant strains could be bred in areas with low vaccination rates.Yes. We often cover individuals whose lifestyles may have contributed to their illnesses. Regularly, we pay for treatment for cancer and drug rehab for smokers.This is one reason why insurers have favored carrots over sticks to get people vaccinated. According to Americas Health Insurance Plans (an industry association), some private insurers offer people who are vaccinated a credit towards their medical premiums or gift cards or sweepstakes prizes.The Food and Drug Administration would likely give vaccines full approval instead of the current emergency use authorization. This might make it easier to love. Larry Levitt, executive Vice President of KFF, an organization that focuses on health issues, said that taxpayer-funded plans such as Medicare and Medicaid must treat everyone equally and that it would take a long process to obtain federal waivers to test with incentives. KFF has one program, Kaiser Health News, where Rosenthal serves as editor-in-chief. These programs can't charge different rates for different patients in different states.KFF polling indicates that such incentives have little value. Many of the remaining holdouts claim they will only be vaccinated if their employers require it.What if the financial costs of not getting vaccinated proved too high? Patients might reconsider staying unprotected if they considered the cost they might have to pay.Kaiser Health News has republished this article under a Creative Commons licence. You can read the original article.
