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Insurers no longer waiving out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 treatment

A new Kaiser Family Foundation study found nearly three-quarters of private insurers are no longer waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment.

INDIANAPOLIS — If you are hospitalized with COVID-19, there is a good chance you will have to pay a portion of the bill.

A new Kaiser Family Foundation study found nearly three-quarters of private insurers are no longer waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment. 

Krutika Amin with the Kaiser Family Foundation said that number is likely to increase.

"Another 10% (of insurers) are expected to phase out the cost sharing waivers by October of this year," Amin said.

At the beginning of the pandemic, KFF found 88% of people enrolled in fully insured private health plans got their out-of-pocket costs waived if they were hospitalized with COVID-19. 

But with vaccines ready and available, that practice is almost phased out according to their more recent study. 

Depending on your insurance plan, out-of-pocket costs for a hospitalization could be more than $1,000. 

"People's out of pocket costs are a fraction of what it costs the system for these COVID hospitalizations that are preventable at this point," Amin said. 

A KFF analysis found in June and July 2021, COVID-19 hospitalizations among unvaccinated adults cost the U.S. health system over $2 billion. 

Amin adds that the cost of treating unvaccinated people for COVID-19 will ultimately cost society, "including taxpayer-funded public programs and private insurance premiums paid by workers, businesses, and individual purchasers."

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