Health care affordability improved between 2019 and 2022 under pandemic health coverage policies: findings from the Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Karpman, Michael, author Gonzalez, Dulce, author Zuckerman, Stephen, author
- Contributor(s):
- Health Policy Center (Urban Institute), issuing body. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, June 2023
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Costs and Cost Analysis -- statistics & numerical data COVID-19 -- economics Health Care Surveys Health Equity -- economics Health Policy Healthcare Disparities Insurance, Health Medicaid United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Each year, millions of Americans have difficulty paying for health care, leading many to delay or forgo needed care or incur medical debt. Access to health insurance coverage can prevent these harmful outcomes and is a key determinant of health care affordability. As such, the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic protected access to coverage through Medicaid and the health insurance Marketplaces. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act prohibited states from disenrolling people from Medicaid during the public health emergency in return for increased federal matching funds, resulting in Medicaid enrollment growth of more than 22 million people since February 2020. Additional legislation increased Marketplace premium tax credits and expanded eligibility for tax credits to families with incomes of 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) or more through the end of 2025. In this brief, we examine trends in health care affordability using data from the Urban Institute’s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS), a nationally representative survey of adults ages 18 to 64 conducted each December. We estimate changes during the pandemic and the years leading up to it for two affordability measures: (1) the share of adults reporting they or their families had problems paying or were unable to pay medical bills in the past 12 months, and 2) the share of adults reporting they did not get needed medical care in the past 12 months because they could not afford it. We focus on how the measures changed between December 2019, just before the pandemic began, and December 2022, the most recent round of data collection. Our analysis also examines how disparities by race/ethnicity and family income have changed during this period.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (16 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918697485606676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918697485606676