"We're not seeing great strides in health care coverage for many Americans." So wrote research scientist Sasha Guttentag in GoodRx's recent survey on health insurance. The annual study, conducted in late January and based on responses from 1,202 Americans, revealed that 13% of the U.S. population is uninsured. This is up from 2019, when the survey showed the nationwide uninsured rate to be 11%. Among those study participants who did have insurance, 34% reported their premiums increasing, and 22% said said their copays have gone up as well.
High costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic has made matters worse for several workers, write Sheldon Whitehouse and Sherrod Brown in an op-ed. They point to a FAIR Health analysis of 30 billion private health care claims which showed the average charge for a COVID-19 patient requiring an in-patient stay to be an estimated $73,300. That amount drops to $38,221 for an insured patient utilizing in-network services.
Since health insurance is regulated at the state level, varying degrees of income and policy support state by state can lead to drastically different coverage rates. A new study from AdvisorSmith takes a deep dive into the percentage of residents of all 50 states and the District of Columbia who do (and don't) have insurance.
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Richard Binder
Richard Binder, based in New York, is part of the social media team at ALM. He is also a 2014 recipient of the ASPBE Award for Excellence in the Humorous/Fun Department.
