It's reportedly costing billions of dollars to treat hospitalized unvaccinated COVID patients

Nurse in hospital.
(Image credit: APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)

A new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation pegged the preventable cost of hospitalizing and treating unvaccinated COVID patients between June and August at an estimated $5.7 billion, CNN reports.

Using data from both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service as well as health care studies, the report's authors found that each of the 287,000 "preventable" COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last three months cost around $20,000. When multiplied together, the two numbers amount to the $5.7 billion figure.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.