Huge medical price hikes a price to pay for anti-vaxxers

There’s another form of “long Covid” coming for those who have medical aid, the huge cost to the private health sector likely to be passed on to members in the form of large premium increases next year.

It has become an annual stab of pain to receive medical aid premium increases, which are generally above the level of inflation but the experts say next year will be even worse.

Covid is, legally speaking, regarded as a prescribed minimum benefit, which means medical schemes must pick up the tab from their members, without demanding copayments.

Fedhealth’s statistics show that the average cost per Covid hospital admission has been R163 000, with an average stay of 10 days.

In addition, the medical sector is expecting a surge in elective surgical procedures, which were postponed because patients were wary of going to a hospital at the height of the pandemic.

This reality is all the more reason to get vaccinated.

Not only do you run a far lower risk of developing severe disease, you will not clog up the wards with a condition which is essentially preventable.

An anti-vaxx position, therefore, not only threatens lives, it threatens both the private and government health sectors.