While being treated for COVID-19 during his stay at Walter Reed Medical Center, President Donald Trump received the medical care most of us can only dream about. Estimates say this out-of-pocket treatment likely cost at least $650,000. The estimate takes Trump’s experimental drug treatments into consideration as well as his three-day stay and his transportation to-and-from the hospital.
Trying to break down the costs of treatment for COVID-19, Dr. Bruce Lee and his team at the City University of New York decided to create “computer models to calculate the cost of care on the American healthcare system,” MavenRoundtable [1] reports.
“If someone has a mild case, it’s not going to be as expensive,” Lee said. “When you start requiring hospitalization, the average, or median cost is around $14,000.”
But for Trump, the costs were almost certainly higher.
“Probably at the very least in the multiple hundreds of thousands,” Lee told Business Insider. [2] “And I would guess probably — it could be very well over that.”
Business Insider broke down the probable costs, which included:
- Earlier in the pandemic, Trump said he took two week’s worth of hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure. That cost ran around $155.
- If Trump received at least one rapid coronavirus test weekly since early March, which would number about 35 tests, which average $200 each, that cost would be $7,000.
- When Trump tested positive for the virus, he immediately received an antibody treatment from Regeneron. The market price for this drug hasn’t been set as yet, but one single treatment can cost as much as $100,000. It’s likely that the president an amount that’s four times the amount received in clinical trials, according to the company, adding a hefty $387,000 to the total.
- Of course, he also received the fanciest accommodations. He resided in Ward 71 at the medical center, which is reserved for diplomats and their families. The cost for this isn’t known but VIP suites in other hospitals with more modest accommodations usually cost about $4,000 per night.
- It’s also likely that Trump received diagnostic tests, like chest x-rays or CT scans. That would tack on another $570.
- On at least two occasions, Trump received supplemental oxygen, at a cost of about $480.
- He also received remdesivir for five days, at a cost of about $3,120.
- Trump was airlifted to the medical center, and the median cost for that, as of 2016, was about $39,000. If three helicopters flew in a formation that cost would likely be $234,000 even though he spent less than 15 minutes in the air.
- The only thing that wasn’t expensive was dexamethasone, a steroid that’s used for people with pneumonia. That costs about $1.
Now imagine your child, spouse, or parent was infected with COVID-19 and became sick. Wouldn’t you love for them to receive this kind of care if needed? Unlike Trump, most of us don’t have these options. Does he even deserve these treatments?