Early in the pandemic, most people enrolled in fully-insured private health plans had their out-of-pocket costs waived, if they were hospitalized with COVID-19. That is no longer the case, as nearly three-quarters of the largest health plans are no longer waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment.
If you are a commercial fishermen enrolled in a healthcare plan from the Health Insurance Marketplace and you wind up in the hospital with COVID-19, your out-of-pocket expenses for the year could be as much as $8,550 for an individual and $17,100 if you are enrolled as a family. Add that to your lost fishing revenue and a case of COVID-19 can get expensive.
If you are uninsured, the costs for hospitalization with COVID are much higher. An analysis (PDF) by the independent non-profit organization, FAIR, found that, median costs for different age groups ranged from a low of $34,662 a high of $45,683. That’s real money, even to a highliner. If you require treatment in the ICU, costs can exceed $200,000! That makes a free vaccine that reduces your chance of infection by 5x and your chance of hospitalization by 10x looks like a pretty good deal.
Are you feeling lucky? 92% of new infections are among the unvaccinated. 70% of cases are occurring in the 18 to 49 age group and COVID-19 was the leading cause of death for the 35 to 54 age group this past September.
Commercial fishing is risky enough. Don’t take chances with your health and livelihood. Use our Vaccine Finder and locate your vaccination. Get the shot and keep fishing.