AARP Hearing Center
The vast majority of Americans younger than 65 get health insurance through their work. With unemployment rates soaring during the coronavirus pandemic, a new report from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) finds that nearly 27 million people could lose their employer-sponsored health coverage.
"This is the first recession where the ACA [Affordable Care Act] is there as a safety net, and without it, many more people would become uninsured,” says Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF and one of the authors of the report.
KFF estimates that between March 1 and May 2, 78 million people lived in a household where someone lost a job, and of those people, 61 percent — or 47.5 million — had employer-based insurance before they were laid off or terminated. KFF researchers estimate that about 19 million of those individuals could switch to coverage through a working spouse's employer or, if younger than 26, through a parent's employer. But, it says, 26.8 million could potentially become uninsured.
The report also estimates that 8.4 million of those who have lost their jobs and could lose their health insurance would be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay for an ACA marketplace plan. Although the ACA open enrollment period ended late last year, people who become uninsured because of losing their jobs are eligible for a special enrollment period that will allow them to apply for an ACA plan.
KFF also estimates that 12.7 million people who now could be without insurance would be eligible for Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for low-income Americans. Some out-of-work workers may be able to continue on their employer's plan through COBRA (the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act), although premiums for those plans are very expensive, ranging from an average of $7,188 a year for a single person to $20,576 for a family of four, the report says. Also available are short-term insurance plans that typically carry lower premiums than the ACA or COBRA, but that also provide much more limited benefits and often deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions.
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