The Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey offers a snapshot of how the COVID-19 pandemic and recession affected households as the recession extended into the summer and millions of adults remained unemployed. We use the Household Pulse Survey to measure changes in insurance coverage between April 23–May 12 and July 9–21, 2020 and better understand how the recession impacted insurance coverage. We find that during these three months, the number of nonelderly adults with ESI fell by 3.3 million, while the number of uninsured adults increased by 1.9 million. These coverage losses have been concentrated among men, Hispanic adults, younger adults, and adults who have not attended college. ESI coverage losses have occurred in both states that did and did not expand Medicaid under the ACA. Our findings indicate that groups experiencing larger losses in ESI coverage experienced corresponding increases in public coverage or uninsurance rates, with smaller observed changes in private nongroup coverage rates.
Display Date
File
File
(1.03 MB)