Updates: No Vax Could Cost You, Florida Melting Down, AZ Mask Law Fail, No Hot Vax Summer
No Vax Could Cost You
"Unvaccinated individuals have potential to cost the employer more from a health care spend perspective," Symons told CBS MoneyWatch. "They could get COVID and incur expensive hospital costs up to $50,000 for an individual with a tough COVID case." Back in June I blogged a proposal to make people who refuse vaccinations pay their own way if they get COVID-19. It's only fair: If people exercise their freedom to forego the vaccine, they should also be responsible for the consequences of that decision.
As it is they freeride. They can refuse the vaccine for childish and/or political reasons, then depend on those of us who have made the responsible choice to save their bacon with expensive hospital care that everyone pays for through insurance premiums.
Incredibly, nobody has rushed to implement my proposal, but insurance providers may be taking a step in that direction. They're not doing it directly but through employer-funded health insurance. An idea gaining momentum is to establish an insurance surcharge of $50 per month for people who refuse the jab.
A health benefits consultant quoted in the linked article said, "unvaccinated individuals have potential to cost the employer more from a health care spend perspective. They could get COVID and incur expensive hospital costs up to $50,000 for an individual with a tough COVID case." It's no different than charging smokers higher premiums, he pointed out.
Things are already changing. Insurers who, before the vaccine, waived co-pays and deductibles, are no longer doing so. It's a small measure, but at least it's something. On the other hand the charges apply to everyone, including people who get breakthrough infections because people who won't get vaccinated.
Florida is Melting Down into a Disease Cesspool Dug by DeSantis
I have posted many times about the idiocy of Governor Ron "Florida Man" DeSantis. He—along with his COVIDiot pals Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona (also discussed here many times)—has enthusiastically prosecuted a public illness campaigns that prohibits sensible mitigation measures.
DeSantis deserves special ridicule. He previously bragged about how his state was doing no worse than places that implemented mitigation measures, while simultaneously whining that he didn't get enough credit.
How are things looking now, Ron? Florida reported over 33,000 new cases over the weekend. The seven-day average of new cases is almost twice what it was at the peak of the winter surge. Hospitalizations are going through the roof, as shown in this chart from the New York Times:
AZ Legislature's Fail on Public Illness Law
Speaking of Ducey...just last week I blogged about the bravery shown by some Arizona school districts and the state university system in defying his breathtakingly reckless policy of banning mask mandates. I mentioned that a group has filed suit to overturn the law on constitutional grounds.
What I didn't mention is that a biology teacher at Phoenix Union High School District—a biology teacher?!?—filed a lawsuit against his district to overturn their mask mandate. He claimed the district could not just ignore a state law.
In deciding this case, a Superior Court judge found that the law was not yet in effect because the legislature screwed up and used the wrong language for it to take effect immediately. The law won't take effect until 90 days from passage, which is at the end of September.
There are a couple things I don't get here. The judge did not dismiss the lawsuit and is giving the teacher time to file an amended complaint. But I don't see how the teacher has standing given that no law is in place for the school to violate. I also don't understand why the executive order that preceded the law doesn't put the district in violation.
But I'm no lawyer. I do hope that by Sept. 28 the anti-mandate lawsuit will have some traction and put the matter to rest, at least until the legislature has a do-over.
Vax Summer Wasn't So Hot After All
Ah...remember the good old days of early June when we thought all this was over? People who had been vaccinated were making plans to take advantage of their new protected status and do things again. I was going to be a hot vax summer baby!
Well, thanks to the Delta variant and stupid/childish/politcal refusal of a lot of people to get vaccinated, that hasn't worked out. We're in a new surge, back to wearing masks. There are mask mandates in some places, and we're back to fighting about masks. There was even a stabbing and attacks on reporters at an anti-mask/pro-mask protest in Los Angeles. Because the pandemic has turned people into assholes.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
