With vaccine mandates seeping into long-term care facilities around the country, many providers still allow regular testing as an alternative for those who aren’t vaccinated. Some, however, are looking into the question of who foots the bill if healthcare premiums increase for workers that choose not to be vaccinated.
Unvaccinated COVID-19 hospitalizations cost billions of dollars, according to a joint analysis from the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“The hospitalizations are costing businesses paying health insurance premiums to pay more. Some providers are considering passing along the cost to unvaccinated workers,” reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s website, cleveland.com.
Employers expect health benefit costs to rise 4.7% on average in 2022 compared to 2021, according to early results from a Mercer national survey.
Employers, on average, will not increase employees’ share of the cost of coverage next year; employees will continue to pay an average of 22% of total health plan premium costs. Among the largest employers (those with 20,000 or more employees), almost a third (32%) plan to decrease the share of the premium contributed by employees in 2022, whereas only 17% will increase it, according to the Mercer survey.
