COVID-19 hospitalizations of unvaccinated people have cost Montana $35 million

COVID-19 hospitalizations of unvaccinated people are estimated to have cost the state $35 million, according to an economist at the University of Montana.

At this week’s economic seminar at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, Robert Sonora, who is in charge of health research at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, provided an estimate of the costs from July to November of 2021.

“This is in terms of hiring more employees, having to change the cost of actual COVID care, which is estimated to be roughly $20,000 per COVID patient,” said Sonora.

Patients who remain in the hospital for two weeks, according to Sonora, are included in this calculation. He said that some individuals are admitted to the hospital for up to six weeks.

Sonora claims that he used a nationwide Kaiser Family Foundation calculation to come up with the Montana estimate. During a six-month period last year, KFF estimates that almost $14 billion in vaccine-preventable costs were spent on the treatment of patients across the country.