Back in April 2020, early in the pandemic, the US suffered from tremendous unemployment. With that, came millions of uninsured. Paul Fronstin and Stephen Woodbury report for The Commonwealth Fund that even though millions of Americans lost their jobs since March 2020, fewer than anticipated lost their health insurance. Whatever the number of uninsured, the Biden administration should ensure coverage for the uninsured and offer workers the choice of health coverage not tied to their work.
President Biden proposes that the government pay the health insurance premiums–COBRA–for people who have lost their health insurance along with their jobs during this pandemic. That will definitely help the insurers. But, giving people back the high-deductible, high-copay health insurance they had when they were employed is a far cry from helping them when they have little or no income and limited savings.
Recent estimates suggest that about 7.7 million people who lost their jobs during the pandemic also lost their employer coverage. Including their family members who lost coverage, closer to 14.6 million people lost employer insurance. Both for their individual health and the public health, they should be able to get care without worry about the cost.
Paying people’s COBRA premiums is out of line with Biden’s desire to provide free COVID-19 testing and treatment for everyone. To provide this coverage, there’s a far better proposal on the table, the Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act. sponsored by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Senator Bernie Sanders and others. It would have the Department of Health and Human Services cover the full cost of care for everyone who lacks health insurance, along with the copays, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for people with public or private insurance. That policy solution would ensure that everyone got free COVID care.
The cost of the Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act would likely be far less than paying for people’s health insurance through COBRA. Estimates are that half of people who were laid off were able to keep their health insurance coverage. More than four in ten businesses that had to let go of workers continued to pay some of their workers’ premiums. Even with COBRA, how many of workers skipped care because the out-of-pocket costs were high?
Many more workers are likely to lose their health insurance in the coming months. It’s hard to imagine that employers will continue to pay premiums for workers they had to let go. And, it’s likely that in this next wave of the pandemic, fewer employers will pay premiums for workers who they are forced to lay off.
The best solution for ensuring everyone gets free COVID care and access to all needed care is to improve and expand Medicare to everyone. Short of that, President Biden should support, and Congress should pass, the Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- John Oliver explains why we need Medicare for all
- Medicare drug benefit leaves many with high out-of-pocket costs
- Would a public option reduce your out-of-pocket health care costs?
- Seven reasons commercial insurance cannot meet our health care needs
- Four things to think about when choosing between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans
Leave a Reply