Affordable Care Act key to keeping people insured amid COVID 19-related job losses

[Greenbeard]

In case we needed yet another reminder that the GOP's push to take away coverage during a pandemic is foolish.

Affordable Care Act key to keeping people insured amid COVID 19-related job losses

Boston, MA – Widespread layoffs amid the COVID-19 pandemic threaten to cut off millions of people from their employer-sponsored health insurance plans. But the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will protect many of these people and their families from losing coverage, according to a new study.

Between 2011 and 2013, job loss was associated with an average health insurance coverage loss of 4.6 percentage points, the analysis found. The proportion of participants with any coverage decreased from 66.3% to 61.7%.

But after the ACA went into effect—when the overall coverage rate was much higher to begin with (76.2%)—job loss was no longer linked to an increase in the uninsured rate. Large gains in Medicaid (8.9 percentage points) and marketplace coverage (2.6 percentage points) nearly fully offset the reduction in employer-sponsored insurance for people who left or lost their job, according to the authors. Overall, the implementation of the ACA was associated with a 6.0-percentage-point net increase in the likelihood of having coverage after a job loss.

“These results indicate the critical role that the ACA will play in alleviating coverage losses related to the Covid-associated recession,” the authors wrote.

COVID provides a good illustration of why the ACA's project of creating viable alternatives to employer-based coverage was necessary and ought to be expanded upon going forward.

 

[Vern]

Thanks Obama

 

[Taylor]

Remember before Obamcare was passed when there were no "viable alternatives" to health insurance provided by an employer?

Yeah, me neither.

 

[Vern]

Remember before Obamcare was passed when there were no "viable alternatives" to health insurance provided by an employer?

Yeah, me neither.

It’s good you admit that unaffordable for most and not available to all was not viable. It’s a start.