--- title: Does Insurance Cover Ebola? | TIME 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/video/5Fw6St3x/ og:title: Does Insurance Cover Ebola? 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/video/5Fw6St3x/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5Fw6St3x/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Does Insurance Cover Ebola? 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://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5Fw6St3x/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Does Insurance Cover Ebola? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## 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?_ --- Jul 27, 2023 5:25 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Ebola Fighters in the U.S. - TIME's Person of the Year 2014](/video/SBg4j1BY/) ### Ebola Fighters in the U.S. - TIME's Person of the Year 2014 [Obama Speaks on Ebola at The U.N.](/video/IDkAzydH/) ### Obama Speaks on Ebola at The U.N. [Atlanta Hospital to Treat Second U.S. Ebola Patient](/video/kFJMjOWt/) ### Atlanta Hospital to Treat Second U.S. Ebola Patient --- ## 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":"VideoObject","name":"Does Insurance Cover Ebola?","description":"Your chances of getting Ebola in the U.S. are very slim. 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