Companies mulling charging unvaccinated employees more for health coverage: report

Health analysts are saying that companies may begin charging unvaccinated employees more for their health insurance as the highly contagious delta variant fuels more COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the country. 

Similar to the higher insurance premiums smokers may face due to being deemed a greater health risk, companies are now looking at the potential costs their unvaccinated employees may face should they get infected with COVID-19 and require medical treatment. 

Wade Symons, a partner at benefits consulting firm Mercer Health, told CBS MoneyWatch on Friday that he expects some employers to increase health premiums for unvaccinated workers by as much as $20 to $50 per paycheck. 

“Unvaccinated individuals have potential to cost the employer more from a health care spend perspective,” Symons explained, adding that “an individual with a tough COVID case” could get a hospital bill as high as $50,000. 

The health insurance consultant said that a higher health premium for an unvaccinated worker “allows a company to say, ‘OK, you have a choice to do it or not, but if you don’t there will be a surcharge you have to pay.'”

“So it feels a little better from the employer’s perspective to be able to say, ‘We’re not mandating it, but we want to nudge you along the road to getting vaccinated,'” he told CBS. 

Kaiser Health News (KHN) also reported last week that while most major private insurance companies initially waived patient payments for COVID-19 treatment, several have allowed the policy to lapse following the emergency use authorizations granted to three COVID-19 vaccines. 

Aetna ended its insurance waiver policy at the end of February, and UnitedHealthcare officially stopped its waivers in March after rolling back the policy for months, according to KHN.

The deliberations among companies come as hospitals across the country say that the vast majority of new COVID-19 patients are among those who remain unvaccinated. 

According to research published Thursday by the Indeed Hiring Lab, the number of job openings posted that required potential applicants to be vaccinated nearly doubled between July and August. 

President Biden has issued a vaccine requirement for federal employees, a decision that was followed by a number of state and local governments deciding to do the same. 

The day after Biden’s announcement, Walt Disney Co. said all of its employees would need to get the COVID-19 vaccine within two months, and Walmart, the country’s largest private employer, said it would require vaccinations among its workers at the company’s headquarters in Arkansas.