I spent several days in ICU, not for Covid, and the bill was $15,000 per day. I was not on a ventilator. $13,000 does not seem out of line to me.
Sure, it would be reasonable - if every person hospitalized for COVID-19 were in ICU.
They aren't. Not even close. If they were we wouldn't be seeing a 98%-99% recovery rate.
Last estimate I saw was that less than 20% get that sick. And so far every estimate for every aspect and statistic for this mess has been WAY high.
For example, the estimated peak is supposed to be tomorrow or a day or two later, and the estimated death toll was supposed to top out at something like 3000 per day.
The last 3 days have been the first time we've seen a decline in the number of deaths per day for 3 days in a row since this whole thing started. The numbers have been 2050, 1830, and today 1538. So it is possible that the peak was 3 days ago at 2050.
Now over 2000 people in one day is certainly not trivial and is in fact serious and significant. But once again the numbers have actually been lower than predicted. A LOT lower.
Initially the predictions were 500 thousand dead in the UK and 2.2 MILLION in the US. It is looking like the totals are going to end up being WAY less than 10% of that. Right now the numbers are actually 1% - 2% of the predicted totals. The UK is at just over 10k deaths and the US is at 22k.
It isn't over yet, but in both countries it is looking like the peak is either here or even passed. Based on other countries experience so far there is no reason to expect those numbers to more than double since these things follow a standard bell curve pattern. And that is assuming we don't discover ANY effective treatments preventatives, or cures.
So basically, all of that to say, that $13k per hospitalized patient and $39k for every one on a vent adds up to a LOT of money given the very small percentage that need any kind of intensive care treatment or ventilator.