Excerpt: "The coronavirus pandemic stripped an estimated 5.4 million Americans of their health insurance between February and May, a stretch in which more adults became uninsured because of job losses than have ever lost coverage in a single year, according to a new analysis."
Drivers lining up for virus testing in Los Angeles. More than a third of California's cases are in Los Angeles County. (photo: Jenna Schoenefeld/NYT)
5.4 Million Americans Lost Health Insurance in Pandemic, Study Finds
15 July 20
California’s governor announced a sweeping rollback of the state’s reopening and Los Angeles and San Diego school districts will be online-only in the fall. Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to the White House.
he coronavirus pandemic stripped an estimated 5.4 million Americans of their health insurance between February and May, a stretch in which more adults became uninsured because of job losses than have ever lost coverage in a single year, according to a new analysis.
As Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports, the study, to be released Tuesday by the nonpartisan consumer advocacy group Families U.S.A., found that the estimated increase in uninsured laid-off workers over the three-month period was nearly 40 percent higher than the highest previous increase, which occurred during the recession of 2008 and 2009. In that period, 3.9 million adults lost insurance.
“We knew these numbers would be big,’’ said Stan Dorn, who directs the group’s National Center for Coverage Innovation and was the author of the study. “This is the worst economic downturn since World War II. It dwarfs the Great Recession. So it’s not surprising that we would also see the worst increase in the uninsured.”
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