HEALTH INSURANCE & YOU IN COVID-19: Navigating the American Healthcare System

Insurance coverage is confusing...

Are you familiar with your health insurance plan and understand all of your benefits and coverage? If you do not, you are not alone! Many people across the country also have difficulty understanding their coverage and benefits. Studies show that actually 30% or more Americans report difficulty figuring out their insurance coverage and what they have to pay for care. By not fully understanding their benefits and coverage, some individuals actually end up paying out of pocket expenses that may have been covered in their insurance plans. Let’s strive to become healthier and maximize our health insurance coverage!

COVID-19 Effects on Healthcare and Stress
The pandemic not only transformed how we viewed our daily lives, but also impacted our healthcare system. Amidst the uncertainty of the pandemic, job losses have threatened health insurance coverage for millions of people and their families.

• Health Insurance Enrollment: During this period, many of those who have lost their employer based coverage turned to Medicaid as enrollment increased by 4.3 million people from February through July 2020. Data also shows that amid the pandemic, Medicaid/CHIP enrollment is still increasing as enrollment grew by 21.2 million enrollees from February 2020 to December 2022 (KFF).
• Financial Burdens: As the world shut down, many individuals and families experienced layoffs and were left with financial strains.
• Emotional Stress: In an APA Stress in America Survey, health insurance caused many stress reported by a majority of Americans with ⅔ of US adults citing that the cost of health insurance is a stressor for themselves. This adds on-top of the ongoing stress of the disease, loss of loved ones, and rise of hate crimes towards the AAPi community.

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Health Insurance in Massachusetts
Did you know that Massachusetts has the lowest uninsured rate in the whole country? Only 3% of Massachusetts’ population is uninsured, which is the lowest percentage out of all US states. In the state of Massachusetts all individuals ages 18 or older fall under the “individual mandate,” requiring these individuals to enroll in a health insurance plan. Government Health Benefit plans are also available for individuals and families who fall below the poverty line and are eligible.

Why is Health Insurance important?

• Health insurance allows individuals to get care and is associated with lower death rates, better health outcomes, and improved productivity (AHA).
• A study shows that following Massachusetts implementing coverage expansion through both Medicaid and private coverage, the state’s all-cause mortality rate declined significantly.
• Uninsured individuals often rely more on hospital emergency departments that often could have been prevented or treated at a low cost-setting.
• Higher health insurance literacy is associated with lower likelihood of delayed or foregone care owing to cost for both preventive and non-preventative care.

Want to learn more about enrolling in Health Insurance? Join us at our January Lunch & Learn Workshop will be led by our staff, Sofia Li, and Hannah Frigand, the Director of Public Programs at Health Care for All!
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We are looking forward to seeing and connecting with you at our workshop! Just incase you missed our previous December Lunch & Learn discussing the true meaning of presence and creating meaningful connections, Beyond Physical Proximities, click on this link for the full video recording.
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​Sources for the article: 

1. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/m13-2275
2. https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/analysis-of-recent-national-trends-in-medicaid-and-chip-enrollment/
3. https://www.healthcare.gov/why-coverage-is-important/#:~:text=Health%20insurance%20protects%20you%20from,before%20you%20meet%20your%20deductible.