NEW: Private insurers typically pay over 2X more than Medicare for services likely to be used by hospitalized #COVID19 patients.

It helps show why a public option using Medicare rates could curb costs - and why hospitals tend to oppose these ideas https://bit.ly/3iAwP4h 

The gap for #COVID19 related services is part of a known pattern: Private insurers pay hospitals much higher rates than Medicare.
Private insurance paid at least $10k more than Medicare rates on avg for 4/7 non-COVID-related diagnoses we analyzed https://bit.ly/3iAwP4h 

There is much wider variation in private insurance payment rates than Medicare payments for all services KFF analyzed, with particularly wide variation for the three diagnoses similar to COVID-19 treatments. https://bit.ly/3iAwP4h