Home Health Care Report: 10M could lose insurance by the end of 2020

Report: 10M could lose insurance by the end of 2020

6
0
SHARE

About 10.1 million people could lose employer-based insurance coverage this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report released Monday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The report, prepared by researchers at the Urban Institute, estimated that 48 million non-elderly people will be part of a household where someone loses their job due to Covid-19. A portion of them would have already had insurance coverage through another family member’s job (34%), through Medicaid (27%), or might have already been uninsured (10%), leaving roughly 21% that would lose their coverage as a result of the pandemic.

Unemployment rates soared in March, though they have since leveled off at 11.1% in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But this figure may not fully represent the number of people who are newly jobless, since it only includes people who are actively searching for work.

What will happen next is still difficult to predict. Of the 10 million estimated to lose their job-based insurance this year, researchers forecast 3.3 million will gain coverage by being added to a family member’s policy. Roughly 2.8 million will enroll in Medicaid, and 600,000 people will enroll in the individual market, mainly through ACA marketplace plans. Another 3.5 million would become uninsured.

Researchers based these figures on reported employment losses from the Department of Labor and calculations on whether individuals would be eligible for subsidized insurance coverage. The numbers are lower than previous estimates, reflecting that the Covid-19 pandemic has hit workers in low-wage jobs particularly hard, many of whom were less likely to have employer-based health insurance to start.

“The COVID-19 recession has disproportionately affected the lowest paid workers, who are the least likely to have work-based health insurance,” Katherine Hempstead, senior policy advisor at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said in a news release. “The loss of jobs and coverage associated with the pandemic is a huge test for our safety net, but it may not be the inflection point for the employer market that many predicted.”

States are currently budgeting for an uptick in Medicaid enrollment, and many have already seen tens of thousands of people enrolling in ACA marketplace plans. In California, which extended its special enrollment period, more than 175,000 people had signed up for coverage through its state exchange between March and June. In New York, roughly 200,000 people had enrolled in its marketplace plans in March and April.

For states that don’t manage their own exchanges, about 487,000 people got insurance through Healthcare.gov after losing coverage as of June.

Photo credit: turk_stock_photographer, Getty Images

Source link

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

five + two =