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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA record 5.4 million people lost their health coverage amid the pandemic, a study found.
The coronavirus pandemic stripped an estimated 5.4 million Americans of their health insurance between February and May, a stretch in which more adults became uninsured because of job losses than have ever lost coverage in a single year, according to a new analysis.
As Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports, the study, to be released Tuesday by the nonpartisan consumer advocacy group Families U.S.A., found that the estimated increase in uninsured laid-off workers over the three-month period was nearly 40 percent higher than the highest previous increase, which occurred during the recession of 2008 and 2009. In that period, 3.9 million adults lost insurance.
We knew these numbers would be big, said Stan Dorn, who directs the groups National Center for Coverage Innovation and was the author of the study. This is the worst economic downturn since World War II. It dwarfs the Great Recession. So its not surprising that we would also see the worst increase in the uninsured.
The findings are certain to fuel the debate in Congress over the next round of virus relief.
The study is a state-by-state examination of the effects of the pandemic on laid-off adults younger than 65, the age at which Americans become eligible for Medicare. It found that nearly half 46 percent of the coverage losses from the pandemic came in five states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, and North Carolina.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/world/coronavirus-updates.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes&utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark#link-4a45abca first
Yet another dubious "first" for Donald Trump. All this "winning" is positively killing people.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,927 posts)I'd have thought that it would be vastly more.
area51
(11,940 posts)canetoad
(17,215 posts)And I apologise, because I'm not a US citizen so am vague about some details of your health care.
Do these folk now have to pay the full fee for every medical service? That could be tens of thousands of dollars. If they can't pay will they lose their houses, cars and possessions?
I'm sorry, but this is so totally, fucking cruel. It makes those people less likely to get early care or preventative medicine which in turn will make them more of a burden on the state when they have nowhere else to turn. Barbaric.
Hekate
(91,005 posts)And yes, barbaric is not too harsh a word.
In this historic moment, with Trump at the helm, I feel as if the veil of all our illusions has been ripped away and I have never felt so disgusted with my own country, and so out of hope, as I am now.
Demsrule86
(68,788 posts)MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)While your new full time job is fighting with the state to get your unemployment benefits which can max out at $275 a week for 13 weeks in a state like Florida. And that ACA plan doesnt cover you for a major hospitalization such as treatment for COVID.
Its better than what we once had, but we have a long long way to go.