Unemployment, Health Insurance, and the COVID-19 Recession

This report examines the kinds of health insurance unemployed workers have and how coverage patterns have shifted under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The report finds joblessness will likely increase uninsurance rates throughout the country in the coming months, and states that did not expand Medicaid under the ACA will likely see larger increases. Given that unemployment rates may reach unprecedented heights during the COVID-19 crisis, steep increases in Medicaid coverage will strain state budgets, restricting already limited resources in the very communities hardest hit by the pandemic. Increasing the federal Medicaid matching rate, beyond the increase already mandated under the recently passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act, could help provide the critical resources needed to protect the states most in need.