--- title: Does Insurance Cover Ebola Care? description: Your chances of getting Ebola in the U.S. are very slim. But if you do, who's footing the bill? canonical: https://time.com/3535825/does-insurance-cover-ebola-care/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-24T15:19:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-17T17:20:35.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Does Insurance Cover Ebola Care? og:description: Your chances of getting Ebola in the U.S. are very slim. But if you do, who's footing the bill? og:url: https://time.com/3535825/does-insurance-cover-ebola-care/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62cba8800f47d811/698762c006f2c15b88331945/ebola-insurance.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: ebola-insurance og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Does Insurance Cover Ebola Care? twitter:description: Your chances of getting Ebola in the U.S. are very slim. But if you do, who's footing the bill? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62cba8800f47d811/698762c006f2c15b88331945/ebola-insurance.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Does Insurance Cover Ebola Care? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=aefffe50-3f02-41e4-be94-d268333b16a1&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Does Insurance Cover Ebola? [Watch (HLS stream): Does Insurance Cover Ebola?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5Fw6St3x.m3u8) (2:17)  _Published 2014-10-24. Your chances of getting Ebola in the U.S. are very slim. But if you do, who's footing the bill?_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/), [Francesca Trianni](https://time.com/author/francesca-trianni/) and [Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/) Updated: Jan 17, 2024 5:20 PM UTCPublished: Oct 24, 2014 3:19 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/), [Francesca Trianni](https://time.com/author/francesca-trianni/) and [Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/) Updated: Jan 17, 2024 5:20 PM UTCPublished: Oct 24, 2014 3:19 PM UTC Ebola care is pricey, with estimates ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 per day, according to several health care analysts and experts who spoke to TIME. Some patients will end up spending weeks at a hospital, racking up a bill of $500,000 or more. That includes everything from paying the medical staff to disposing of waste, to the cost of resources like protective gear. “The cost of treating a patient is going to vary vastly from hospital to hospital, \[starting with\] length of stay,” says Andrew Fitch, a health-care pricing expert at [NerdWallet](http://www.nerdwallet.com/). “A patient treated in Dallas was only hospitalized for two weeks while another was treated for six weeks. The cost of dialysis and IV fluids is going to add up pretty fast and that is going to be compounded by the cost of isolation**.”** **So who foots the bill?** If you have insurance in the U.S., your insurer is likely going to cover the costs under emergency and/or inpatient care coverage. Even though patients with Ebola often first present in the emergency room, the disease is typically intensive and can last for several weeks. Major insurance providers TIME spoke to said they would cover Ebola treatment—but bear in mind that coverage starts after a person has met his or her deductible, which can be upwards of $13,000 for some family plans and $6,000 for an individual plan, says Jeffrey Rice, CEO of Healthcare BlueBook, a Tennessee company that calculates health-care prices for consumers. Dr. Craig Spencer, the Ebola patient in New York City, has health insurance coverage through Doctors Without Borders. Missionaries like Dr. Kent Brantly, Dr. Richard Sacra and Nancy Writebol have insurance through their missionary groups. Nebraska Medical Center, which has treated two patients with Ebola, including Sacra and NBC freelancer Ashoka Mukpo, says all of its patients’ care has so far been covered by their insurance providers. **But what if you don’t have health insurance?** Despite numerous requests from TIME to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, the hospital did not confirmed how the uninsured Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan’s care was paid for. Analysts believe it’s unlikely that Duncan’s family will be dealt a hefty bill given how high-profile the case was and the mistakes made by the hospital. Nebraska Medical Center says it would go about treating an uninsured patient with Ebola the same way that it would treat any patient who comes into their emergency room without insurance. They are federally obligated to treat the patient, and then the patients who cannot pay for their care can apply for financial aid and become part of the hospital’s charitable care program. “We provide millions of dollars worth of this kind of care yearly,” a Nebraska hospital spokesperson told TIME. **What if you get sent to a hospital that’s out of network?** Being treated at out-of-network hospital or by an out-of-network doctor could, in theory, result in a hefty bill. Getting out-of-network treatment covered by your insurance company is decided on a case-by-case basis based on medical necessity. While insurers have the legal right to refuse to cover this type of treatment, says Sabrina Corlette of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, it’s highly unlikely that they would sack the patient with the bill. **If your stuff needs to be incinerated, does insurance cover that?** One of the surefire ways to get rid of any lingering virus within an Ebola patient’s home is to incinerate their belongings. But do they get reimbursed? Most likely. If a government body or medical professional recommends or requires the destruction of property as a preventative measure in the spread of the virus, the value of the destroyed items would most likely be covered at the cost to replace them, or at depreciated value under a home, business or renters policy, says Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders. **Does insurance cover experimental drugs?** No, but that’s because there’s typically no cost involved at all when a drug is still in research and development. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] The chances of contracting Ebola in the United States, are extremely slim. And if you do, you're likely to receive excellent care. But how much would it cost, and who's paying for it? The answer is not that simple. The cost of treating Ebola in a US hospital, varies greatly. Estimates range from $ 5, 000 to to $ 25, 000, per day. That includes paying for medical staff, intensive care treatment, isolation units, protective gear, waste disposal, and so on. [ MUSIC ] Some patients end up staying at the hospital for weeks, racking up a bill of $ 500, 000 or more. How much of that falls on you depends on how covered you are. Many private insurance companies, cover treatment for Ebola. That's because prolonged treatment of the disease falls under inpatient care. Just as if you were treated in the hospital for something like appendicitis. For example, in recent cases of Ebola that were treated at Nebraska medical center in Omaha, every patient had insurance. Insurance that covered the cost of their care. If you're covered under health insurance exchanges or Medicaid, you'll also likely be covered. But keep in mind that patients could pay thousands of dollars in deductibles, depending on their plan. Also, there's only a limited number of hospitals that have been on the frontline of Ebola treatment, including Emory in Atlanta and Presbyterian in Dallas. And it's possible that your insurance company won't cover the out of network fees. But for something as high- profile as Ebola, experts say that it's highly unlikely that an insurer will put all of that cost on you. If you're not insured, you will still receive treatment, and you may not even need to pay for it. For instance, Nebraska Medical Center said that patients without insurance would be covered by a charitable fund. One thing you won't have to worry about is paying for experimental drug treatment. Such as Zmap. As companies generally don't charge for drugs that are still in the research and development phase. But there are other costs surrounding Ebola to consider. First of all after patients are diagnosed, hey may have to be transferred to specialized centers which may or may not be covered by your insurance. Cleaning up and Ebola contaminated apartment is another big expense. Clean up costs range from between 20, 000 to 500, 000 depending on the size of the apartment or home. While these numbers may seen daunting. The scarier figure is the money needed to eradicate a bullet in West Africa, nearly 1 billion dollars. [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3535825/does-insurance-cover-ebola-care/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3535825/does-insurance-cover-ebola-care/"},"headline":"Does Insurance Cover Ebola Care?","datePublished":"2014-10-24T15:19:52.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-17T17:20:35.000Z","description":"Your chances of getting Ebola in the U.S. are very slim. 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