August 21 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic stripped 5.4 million American workers of their health insurance between February and May 2020, according to Families USA.
The COVID-19 pandemic stripped 5.4 million American workers of their health insurance between February and May 2020, according to Families USA. 5.4 million laid-off workers in the U.S. lost their health insurance from February 2020 to May 2020 after losing their jobs, according to a new estimate from Families USA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer health advocacy organization. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that 21 million people in the U.S. were unemployed in May 2020. The report stated that the recent increase in the number of uninsured adults is 39% higher than any annual increase recorded. The highest previous growth took place over the one year from 2008 to 2009, when 3.9 million nonelderly adults became uninsured. ‘These record-breaking increases in the number of uninsured have taken place during the country’s worst public health crisis in more than a century and the sharpest and deepest economic downturn since World War II.’ More than 20% of adults in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas were without insurance as of May. 46% of adults who lost coverage caused by the pandemic came from five states: New York, Texas, California, and North Carolina.