Heartland Alliance: New Data Shows Most Significant Increase in Uninsured Individuals in Almost a Decade – Right Before Pandemic Hit
Data released today from the
Nationwide, the number of uninsured people climbed by one million people from 28.6 million (8.9%) in 2018 to 29.6 million people (9.2%) in 2019.
Conditions are likely to have worsened amid the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, it is estimated 846,000 Illinoisans lost employer-sponsored insurance due to job loss during the pandemic,[1] and
"History has shown us that those who bear the brunt of poverty inequities--people of color, non-citizens, women-headed households--are also hit the hardest when recessions come. Similarly, those with least access to healthcare, even in the good times, are at highest risk during health emergencies," said
In 2019, Trump administration officials continued to neglect and sow confusion within the ACA health insurance marketplace, and pursue extreme and punitive immigration policies that discouraged enrollment in health insurance. Court battles likely confused people about the status of the ACA and depressed enrollment. And ongoing battles related to the public charge immigration rule only worsened the situation.
"The continued erosion of health insurance coverage in 2019 was not surprising," said
In addition to this nationwide decline in the number of uninsured, the new data found that the official poverty rate in
It is important to note that these data reflect conditions in 2019--the last year of an economic expansion, before the pandemic-related recession hit. A historic global pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis in 2020 will tell a much different story than the one we see from 2019. Indeed, initial data from smaller but more recent Census surveys already paint a more troubling picture.[3] Nationwide, 45.3% of adults report living in a household where someone has lost income from work since
Heartland Alliance Poverty Experts Available for Commentary
Additional findings from the release revealed:
- Over 630,000 Illinoisans are living in extreme poverty--meaning a family of three is living on less than about
- There are 4 million people experiencing poverty in
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- Black households were the only major racial/ethnic group in
- Poverty rates for children, female-headed households, and communities of color remain dramatically higher than the overall rate. 39 percent of Illinoisans in poverty work, and 31 percent of Illinoisans in poverty are children. Over half (51 percent) of Illinoisans in poverty are Black or Latino.
- 23% of
Read the fact sheet (https://socialimpactresearchcenter.issuelab.org/resource/poverty-income-health-insurance-update-illinois-and-chicago-region.html) on
Access interactive local data (https://www.heartlandalliance.org/data-dashboards/) for Chicago Community Areas, all cities and townships in the six-county
Access the
View the Fact Sheet here: https://socialimpactresearchcenter.issuelab.org/resource/poverty-income-health-insurance-update-illinois-and-chicago-region.html
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[1] https://www.kff.org/report-section/eligibility-for-aca-health-coverage-following-job-loss-appendix/
[2] https://www.cbpp.org/blog/medicaid-enrollment-continues-to-rise
[3] Table 1: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/hhp/hhp13.html
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