A new paper estimates that if unemployment rises by 20 points—which is pretty likely—25 million people will lose their health insurance. Many will find replacement insurance from other sources, but more than a quarter of them won’t:
In states that accepted Medicaid expansion, 23 percent of those who lose health insurance will end up uninsured. That’s bad enough. But in states that refused expansion, 40 percent of those who lose their jobs and their insurance will end up uninsured.
This adds up to 7 million people who will be newly uninsured in the middle of the worst pandemic of the past century. And there’s no reason to believe that anyone in Washington DC plans to do anything about it.
