Illinois State Rep. Introduces Bill to Force the Unvaccinated to Pay Full Cost of Care for COVID

Illinois State Rep. Jonathan Carroll (D-57th District), introduced a bill on Monday which proposes the following:  

A person who is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and chooses not to be vaccinated shall pay for health care expenses out-of-pocket if the person becomes hospitalized because of COVID-19 symptoms.

Carroll, 47, told WGN 9 Chicago he thought of the idea after his wife asked him why the government pays the hospital bills for the unvaccinated. 

The state lawmaker expressed his frustration in an interview with The Washington Post. This debate is being “played out,” he said, between those who are “trying to do the right thing” and those “choosing not to get vaccinated for whatever reason.”

“If you choose not to get the vaccine and end up catching COVID and end up having any medical expenses, you are responsible for those costs,” he told The Post. “No one is telling anyone what they have to do. What we’re saying is if you make that decision to not get vaccinated and you are hospitalized, that’s the decision you’re making, and there’s consequences to that. It’s a simple formula.”

“We’re in a world where COVID is going to be here for a bit, and those who aren’t doing their part are creating new variants and continuing to spread the disease,” Carroll explained. “We’ve tried so many different incentives and conversations to get people vaccinated, but people aren’t listening. And there is a potential consequence to that personal choice.”

Carroll notes that it is “exceptionally ironic” that Republicans opposed to this legislation are citing Obamacare as “the reason why this bill can’t happen.” 

Yes, The Affordable Care Act was forced upon us against our wishes. Nevertheless, it is the law. And Carroll’s proposed legislation would violate that law.

According to HealthCare.gov:

All Marketplace plans must cover treatment for pre-existing medical conditions.

No insurance plan can reject you, charge you more, or refuse to pay for essential health benefits for any condition you had before your coverage started.

What I find to be “exceptionally ironic” is that Carroll and his Democratic colleagues who have argued endlessly that health care is “a right,” would deny this right to “the unvaccinated?”

In addition to the illegality of Carroll’s proposal under existing federal law, there are other reasons why it’s colossally stupid. Here are a few: 

1.  Can you imagine how far this could be taken? If insurers refuse to cover “the unvaccinated,” should they also refuse to cover those with conditions related to their obesity or their drug and alcohol consumption?

2.  The CDC does not track or at least does not report the number of unvaccinated Americans who have already been infected with COVID-19. Most studies have found that previous infection is at least as effective as and likely superior to vaccine immunity.

Until the protection provided by natural immunity is recognized, any conversation about “the unvaccinated” is meaningless.

3.  We know that those who have been vaccinated can still transmit the virus. And, an October study from the University of California, Davis, Genome Center, UC San Francisco and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, “shows no significant difference in viral load between vaccinated and unvaccinated people who tested positive for the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. It also found no significant difference between infected people with or without symptoms.”

4.  Is the government taking steps to compensate the families of those who died or became incapacitated after being pressured into taking the vaccine? 

In September, Jessica Berg Wilson, a 37-year-old mother of two in Seattle who would not be allowed into her children’s classrooms unless she was vaccinated took the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Shortly afterward, she died from “COVID-19 vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT).” I wrote about Wilson here.

Jose Manriquez, a seven-year veteran with the Denver Police Department, faced with the prospect of losing his job in August, opted for the vaccine. A week later, the 34-year-old father of four could no longer walk. I posted about Manriquez here.

5.  Even a brief stay at the hospital is crazy expensive. For the sake of argument (because it’s a figure we hear repeatedly from the left), let’s assume that 60 percent of those hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms are unvaccinated. 

Many of these patients would be bankrupted by a typical hospital bill. HotAir’s Allahpundit, writes that “either the state would have to pick up the tab, defeating the purpose of Carroll’s legislation, or hospitals would have to consider not treating the unvaccinated, which is a nonstarter ethically.”

He continues: “If the unvaxxed were suddenly on the hook for COVID hospital bills, some of them would simply refuse to go to the hospital if they did end up with a severe case. Better to take your chances with fighting off the virus at home than go to the ER and know that your reward for surviving will be medical bankruptcy. Some of the unvaccinated who decline to go to the hospital will end up dying in their beds when they might have been saved if they had sought professional care. Not good.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Singapore has just adopted this policy.

As countries battle to persuade holdouts to get vaccinated, Singapore has settled on one of the most aggressive strategies: The city-state is going to stop fully covering Covid-19 medical bills for the unvaccinated.

Singapore’s government has paid the full treatment costs of nearly all Covid-19 patients since last year, under a pandemic-era policy to ensure financial considerations wouldn’t add to public concern about the disease. On Wednesday, the government withdrew that support for those who choose to go unvaccinated.

“We have to send this important signal, to urge everyone to get vaccinated if you are eligible,” Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said last month.

Let’s see how it works out for them.

 

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