Released: September 21, 2021

Insurers restore deductibles, co-pays leaving patients with big bills

Source: Christopher Rowland, Washington Post (Paid Registration)

In 2020, as the pandemic took hold, U.S. health insurance companies declared they would cover 100 percent of the costs for covid treatment, waiving co-pays and expensive deductibles for hospital stays that frequently range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But this year, most insurers have reinstated co-pays and deductibles for covid patients, in many cases even before vaccines became widely available.

By August 2021, only 28 percent of the two largest plans in each state and D.C. still had the waivers in place, and another 10 percent planned to phase them out by the end of October, the Kaiser Family Foundation survey found.

Read Full Article: Insurers restore deductibles, co-pays leaving patients with big bills