People with insurance could pay over $1,300 for COVID-19 treatment

Someone with health insurance from their employer could pay $1,300 or more out of pocket for treatment if they’re hospitalized with a severe case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to one analysis. Health researchers based that prediction off of the costs associated with hospitalization for pneumonia.

“The thought is, how we treat pneumonia is going to look at lot like how we treat the coronavirus,” said Matthew Rae, associate director for the Program on the Health Care Marketplace at the Kaiser Family Foundation, who worked on the analysis. “Both are respiratory illnesses.”

Rae and his co-authors analyzed a database of insurance claims for people enrolled in employer insurance plans. They found that...

Continue reading…