CareHealth Guide
How to Pay for your Program during this Pandemic?

Workers facing a coronavirus-related loss of employer-based health insurance should move quickly to assess coverage alternatives, health-policy experts say — and be open to pursuing options they hadn’t considered. As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the economy and sets mass layoffs in motion, some 16.2 million workers have likely lost their employer-based coverage since mid-March, according to a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington, D.C., think tank.

In fact, around 26.8 million people in the U.S. (including workers and dependents) could become uninsured after losing employer-based insurance if they don’t enroll in other coverage, according to a separate recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health-care think tank. Of those
people, 12.7 million likely qualify for Medicaid coverage and 8.4 million likely qualify for Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidies, the report estimated. “While most are eligible for coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), not all will take it up,” the foundation added. “In addition, 5.7 million are not eligible for help under the ACA and would have to pay the full cost of their coverage, and many of them will likely remain uninsured.”

Employer plans cover about half the U.S. population, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports health-care issues. Don’t miss:Most major health insurers aren’t charging patients for coronavirus treatment — but that doesn’t mean it’s free. Those who lose health insurance through their jobs should prioritize finding a new plan, said Linda Blumberg, a health economist at the Urban Institute, a center-left think tank. After all, the research and decision-making process can take time, and some coverage options involve deadlines.

“People shouldn’t wait — they should start investigating,” Blumberg told MarketWatch last month. “It’s a shock, and it’s upsetting to lose your job and worry about income, but this is an important part of the puzzle.” It’s especially important for people to make sure they have insurance coverage right now, Blumberg added, because they could be “at significant risk of incurring a serious health problem
with this pandemic.” More than 1.3 million people in the U.S. had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday, and at least 82,000 had died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.