Coronavirus Reset: How To Get Health Insurance Now
If there's a time that people particularly need access to good health care and health insurance, it's during a global pandemic.
But in the U.S. 33.5 million people so far have had to file for unemployment benefits — and most people in the nation get their health insurance through their jobs. An analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation published Wednesday estimates that 27 million people have recently lost their health coverage.
The bit of good news is that the report also found that the vast majority of those who lost their insurance can remain covered by switching to a spouse's plan, or are eligible to get subsidized health insurance elsewhere — either via Medicaid or via a plan on the Obamacare insurance exchanges.
"To me that the takeaway from this report is that the Affordable Care Act is serving as the safety net it was intended to be," says Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the at Georgetown University. "Of course, the ultimate irony is it's performing this function that it should be struck down."
