Number of Uninsured Adults Remains Same, But Where They Are Getting Insurance Shifts Dramatically

Where employers continue to back away from offering health insurance to their employees, the government is stepping in to pick up the slack, according to data released yesterday detailing the number of adults in the United States who do not have health insurance.

The rate of uninsured adults held steady at 11% through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, but where those other 89% are getting their insurance changed dramatically, according to data released by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation.

About 5.5 million adults have lost their health insurance through their employers during the past two years, according to the analysis. During the same span, however, 7.9 million more adults reported receiving their health insurance through the government. States with offer expanded access to Medicaid saw the highest gains in the number of adults with health insurance. In those states, the number of individuals who said they had public health insurance increased to 19.2% from 14.9% while in non-Medicaid expansion states, the number of adults with public health insurance increased to 14.3% from 10.7%.

“Those who suffered the most from the economic fallout associated with COVID were low-wage workers, so the loss of job-related coverage was less than in previous recessions,” said Katherine Hempstead, senior policy adviser with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in a statement.

For the accounts receivable management industry, this information is important in a number of ways. One, offering health insurance to employees might be an important perk in a tight labor market, but it is becoming more expensive every year. Seeing how other companies across the country are cutting back on their health insurance plans might be helpful information for them as they make important decisions.

Second, for companies collecting medical debt, or those that are working early out accounts for their clients, knowing the type of insurance that an individual has can be an important data point to help get the client paid.