Unvaccinated COVID-19 Hospitalizations Cost Billions of Dollars

[...]of lagging vaccinations and the more infectious Delta variant, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are on the rise again. [...]our analysis of pre-pandemic private insurance claims for pneumonia hospitalizations with complications averaged $20,292 (though the cost for hospitalizations requiring a ventilator are much higher). Though this estimate may not be generalizable to the U.S. population, it is a more conservative estimate of the share of COVID-19 hospitalizations among vaccinated people. [...]we multiply the number of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 by 86% to get the number of unvaccinated adults hospitalized with COVID-19.