From Disease Burden to Healthcare Cost: Highlighting the Health Economics Aspects of the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVES : Cost estimates are essential elements for decision-making in health, both from the viewpoint of planning and allocating resources, but primarily as an argument to urge policy-makers to adopt preparedness measures against major health events. Thus, the objective of the analysis was to estimate the healthcare cost for the management of COVID-19 confirmed cases in Greece.

METHODS : Cost estimation was conducted under the health care sector perspective, which includes direct medical costs that refer to the use of health services. More specifically, the analysis estimated costs of testing for COVID-19, hospitalizations in a general ward and hospitalizations in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Previous reports mentioning hospitalization rates of COVID patients, as well as ICU rates and length of stay, were utilized. With regards to testing rates, relevant reports by the Greek Ministry of Health were used.

RESULTS : Cost per day in hospital in general ward is estimated at 443.1 euros, while cost per day in ICU at 2,245.5 euros. Moreover, cost per non-ICU patient and per ICU patient is estimated at 8,852 and 24,167 euros, respectively. Total healthcare expenditure amounts to 3.7 million euros per 1,000 confirmed cases, including patients who didn’t need hospitalization. Taking into account the PPP exchange rate for Greece, this amounts to 6.53 million (international) dollars per 1,000 confirmed cases.

CONCLUSIONS : The global coronavirus pandemic is associated with a substantial disease burden and a significant healthcare cost. However, the highest, although non-measurable, costs to the society are the opportunity costs of the epidemic. The capacity of the system is finite, while resources are scarce and have a competitive use. For example, every ICU bed that is occupied due to a delayed or inefficient response to the epidemic is one less bed available for a patient in need and that cost is quite “expensive”, in societal terms.