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A post has gone viral on Reddit after someone shared their relative's medical bill after a 60-day stay in a hospital due to COVID-19.
User AlecOP9 posted the image with the caption "Here's how much it costs to be intubated in the ICU for 60 days in the US due to COVID-19." Though the entirety of the bill is not shown, the "patient's responsibility" line is shown clearly: $3,383,860.40. The post has been voted on over 75,000 times.
Between August 1, 2020, and December 6, over 3.4 million people have been admitted to the hospital nationwide with confirmed COVID-19, according to the CDC. The seven-day average of hospital admissions for the week of November 23 was 6,336. The following week was up 14.6 percent at an average of 7,262 admissions as the Omicron variant continues to spread throughout the country.
The Redditor clarified that their cousin's health insurance paid the entirety of the bill—"not a dime was forked out of their pocket."
According to the post, the patient was covered by California's state-funded insurance, Medi-Cal, which covers COVID-related treatments.
In March 2020, what is now known as the COVID-19 Uninsured Group program was implemented by the Department of Health Care Services in California which covered "COVID-19 diagnostic testing, testing-related services, and treatment services, including hospitalization and all medically necessary care, at no cost to the individual, for up to 12 months or the end of the public health emergency, whichever comes first," according to the DHCS website.
DHCS spokesperson Anthony Cava told Newsweek in an email that the program is still open for enrollment and as of December 8 has enrolled 243,855 individuals since March 2020.
He says the program is available to "uninsured and underinsured individuals determined eligible by a qualified provider based on preliminary applicant information," as well as Californians who have private insurance that does not cover COVID-19 related services.
Newsweek reached out to the DHCS for comment.
A column to the left of the bill which appears to be the dates associated with the patient's stay at the hospital read 8/26-11/02/2021—just over 60 days.
The Redditor wrote in response to pushback that an itemized bill might bring the total cost down, "...probably, but not by much," they wrote. "Being on O2, fentanyl, propofol, antibiotics, having 4 bronchoscopies, 3 CT scans, numerous x rays, also a tracheostomy was performed. It is very very expensive. There were 12 people that were taking care of them."
Over 6,000 comments have been made on the post, some discussing the high cost of American healthcare across the board and how it compares to systems overseas.
"[I]n the UK we don't pay at all, not even a conversation that is had," one commenter wrote.
"Cost in NZ? in most cases, $0.00. America's system is seriously f**ked," another wrote.
Some commenters are hesitant to believe the legitimacy of the bill altogether.
"Some of you think I'm trying to be misleading," the original poster wrote in response. "No. I'm just posting this to show how much it costs not per se out of YOUR pocket, but how health care is so expensive in GENERAL in the US. This is the insurances bill."
Updated 12/10/21, 3:30 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comments from a spokesperson for the Department of Health Care Services.
Correction 12/10/21, 3:30 p.m. ET: The COVID-19 Uninsured Group program's date of implementation has been changed from August 28, 2020, to March 2020. The program was rebranded to a different name in August, but the program had been in existence already.
