Continued efforts to shame and cancel those who don't get the COVID-19 vaccine are now getting a boost from the healthcare establishment. A new report from Kaiser Health News warns of higher health insurance costs ahead, and places the blame right where you guessed...on the COVID unvaccinated. "They sent a signal across America to brace yourselves, because your insurance premiums are about to go up," says Todd Furniss, finance/healthcare expert and author of The 60% Solution: Rethinking Healthcare. "Then they indicated the reason for this is because those who are unwilling to take the vaccination, whom they referred to as 'resisters,' were going to drive the cost of healthcare up."
Furniss tells KTRH this latest tactic is a sign that all of those vaccine incentives like cash, lotteries, and even weed in one state, are no longer working. "As a consequence of that, they took the next step, which is to warn people about the costs of all this," he says. "And now what they're doing, in my view, is attempting to somewhat vilify those who haven't taken the vaccine."
"There are any number of very legitimate reasons why people would not want to get the vaccine," he continues. "But they are being categorized as 'resistors,' and that they're going to give rise to an increase in the cost of healthcare."
It remains to be seen if companies will make people share their vaccination status when signing up for health insurance, whether the unvaccinated will be charged more, or if any of that is even legal. "There are a bunch of complicated questions surrounding this," says Furniss. "And my hunch is it's all going to come to a head between now and December 1, because that's when open enrollment usually occurs."
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