As Covid cases surged over the summer, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian took action: Unvaccinated workers would have to pay an extra $200 a month for their health insurance, starting Nov. 1.

It felt less onerous than the vaccine mandate imposed on workers by rival United Airlines. But still, it was audacious.

Around 75% of Delta's workforce had already received the Covid shots by that time. But each employee who was hospitalized with Covid had cost Delta $50,000, and Bastian noted in an August memo that none of those hospitalized in the summer surge had been fully vaccinated.

"This surcharge will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company," he wrote.

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