Today, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) highlighted information from the Connecticut Hospital Association that shows the increased costs that individuals who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 are causing in the health care system when they seek treatment. These reported admission numbers indicate that in June and July of 2021 alone, unvaccinated patients who received hospital care cost hospitals more than $9.3 million in preventable costs, with the effects trickling down to taxpayers.
“We know that many current COVID-19 hospitalizations are preventable if people get vaccinated,” said Senator Duff. “The human and health cost to these individuals in incalculable but this latest information shows the financial costs as people refuse the COVID-19 vaccine. Of the more than 750 patients admitted to hospitals in June and July with COVID-19, 98.3% were unvaccinated. The nearly $10 million in preventable costs their treatment required could have been avoided – but instead, those costs will impact hospitals, and taxpayers, in years to come. It’s believed that nearly 500 of those hospitalizations could have been prevented by vaccination. This shows that vaccination is not just a personal choice, but one that impacts our communities and the services we need every day.”
According to statistics compiled by the Connecticut Hospital Association regarding reported admission numbers in June and July 2021, of the 773 adult patients admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 during that time, 98.3% were estimated to be unvaccinated. Of those patients, 74% were believed to be hospitalized primarily for COVID-19, and 84% of those hospitalizations are believed to have been preventable. Utilizing the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation financial model that lists an approximate cost of $20,000 on average for each COVID-19 related hospital admission, it’s believed hospitalizations among unvaccinated patients were responsible for a combined $9.447 million dollars in preventable costs in June and July alone. Additionally, given Connecticut’s vaccination rates are higher than the national average and and ICU care costs are also higher, that figure may be a conservative estimate. Below is the full data from the Connecticut Hospital Association.
Based on the number of COVID-19 hospital admissions in Connecticut for the months of June and July and utilizing the assumptions (percent of unvaccinated hospital admissions; share of hospitalizations primarily for COVID-19; share of unvaccinated hospitalizations for COVID-19 that were preventable; approximate cost of preventable COVID-19-related hospital admissions) used in the Peterson-KFF model, we estimate the cost of unvaccinated preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations in Connecticut at $4.2 million for June and $5.3 million for July.
