Obamacare’s health care protections face first true test in coronavirus crisis
April 5, 2020 / By Jacqueline Stenson
The Affordable Care Act turned 10 last month and is credited with helping 20 million more Americans get health insurance than before the law was enacted. But the coronavirus pandemic could be the first true test of how well “Obamacare” works at preventing significant coverage loss, experts say.
With unemployment skyrocketing across the country — a record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment last week — there’s a risk that some of the gains in insurance coverage could be lost.
The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., released a report Thursday estimating that as many as 3.5 million workers may have lost their employer-sponsored health insurance in the last two weeks because of layoffs.
Losing health insurance can be frightening at any time, let alone during a pandemic.
About half of Americans get their health insurance through their jobs, the group noted.
