Insurance Coverage after Job Loss — The Importance of the ACA during the Covid-Associated Recession

Abstract

During the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. unemployment rate reached 14.7%, the highest level since the Great Depression. More than 40 million people filed for unemployment insurance between March and May 2020, and official statistics may understate the true extent of job disruptions. Widespread layoffs amid the pandemic threaten to cut off millions of people from their employer-sponsored health insurance plans. Concurrently, health insurance has increased in importance because of the need for coverage of Covid-19 diagnostic testing and treatment. As restrictions are lifted and the economy begins its slow recovery, some people who had been laid off will be able to reclaim their jobs and health benefits. But the economy is unlikely to recover to prepandemic levels in the near future, meaning that the Covid-associated recession will leave many people without jobs and without their usual source of health insurance.