Something I’m starting to wonder about in all of this is the money. I see where Obama is asking for funding, all well and good and predictable and will be much needed by municipalities, hospital, and other agencies. My question is more toward individuals. For one, I see that some people are self-monitoring with paid leave and others are simply losing three weeks of income. For a lot of people, especially those who live paycheck to paycheck this could be devastating. Will we start seeing one person who got on an airplane (or whatever) seeking repayment from someone who was sick? Or better yet, not sick but suspected of being sick?
Much larger than that of course is the fact that the US does not have single payer healthcare but individual coverages. And we all know how much insurance companies love to find ways to not cover things. Anyone who gets this or even just has to be put in isolation for a while is going to rack up HUGE bills. The amount of money involved in bio-containment is amazing. I wonder if the annual OOP maximums will hold up? There is also the tremendous staffing required, 10-25 staff for one patient instead of half a dozen caring for multiple patients. I wonder how that 10-50% coinsurance is going to work out…?
I personally believe this will stay controlled in first world countries and hope I am right. But these expenses are incurred for a while at least even for people who will ultimately test negative for it during their time period of waiting to find out. Most of this abundance of precaution is good, although some may be over the top, but ultimately someone has to pay for it.
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