This is how high the treatment costs for corona intensive care patients are
Created: 01/03/2022, 02:19 PM
From: Franziska Kaindl
The corona pandemic is ensuring high utilization of intensive care beds.
© Christoph Reichwein / Imago
Due to the corona pandemic, many intensive care units in Germany are overloaded.
The treatment of Covid patients entails high costs.
There are currently 3,802 Covid-19 patients in intensive care across Germany, as reported by the DIVI (German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine) (as of January 3).
Not only doctors and nurses are overburdened due to this situation - treating a corona patient * also costs a lot of money.
How much it really is has recently been recorded by health insurance companies and the Thuringia regional health association.
In the state, 223 patients are currently being treated for Covid-19.
Corona cases in intensive care units: Up to 33,000 euros per patient
For the care of a single corona patient,
costs in the five-digit range
are regularly
incurred
. According to a report by the German Press Agency, it is around 1,500 to 3,000 euros a day, as Andreas Weichert, Head of Hospital Financing at the State Hospital Society, explained. The average length of stay of Covid 19 patients was estimated by intensive care physicians to be two to three weeks. According to information from AOK and Barmer,
the health insurers
would
pay an average of around 32,000 to 33,000 euros for the treatment of an invasively ventilated patient in an intensive care unit
. For patients who do not have to be ventilated, however, it is an average of 8,000 euros.
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Corona treatment: why are the costs so high?
How high the costs actually are depends on the
course of the disease, the severity of the disease and the duration of treatment
. However, they are usually higher than for other intensive care patients, as Weichert explains: "The cost of treating seriously ill corona patients is significantly higher than, for example, the cost of oncological patients or caring for accident victims." The background is that there are a lot of staff need to lay a patient from his back onto his stomach. In addition, nurses and doctors would have to take more protective measures to protect themselves from infection. Artificial ventilation for patients in particular drives up costs.
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Discussion about higher health insurance contributions for unvaccinated people
Meanwhile, the Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) advocates
higher health insurance contributions for unvaccinated people
. The mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer (Greens), also spoke out in favor of this, according to the
FAZ
: "I am expressly in favor of increasing the cash contributions if someone who could be vaccinated consciously refuses the injection." However, there is also
criticism of the approach
: "Although I am a clear advocate of compulsory vaccination for adults, now is not the time to think about possible penalties," said Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) according to the
picture
.
The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds also rejects the proposal: “One of the main pillars of statutory health insurance is the principle of solidarity.
This means that the amount of the contributions is based on the financial capacity of the insured person.
The entitlement to medical services, in turn, is independent of the respective contribution
amount
; they are based solely on medical necessity. ”
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