Today, Representative Garnet F. Coleman released the following statement regarding the health insurance coverage for a million recently unemployed Texans:

"Texans filed over a million unemployment claims since mid-March. Many newly unemployed Texans who had received health insurance through their employer are now going to be without health insurance. If Texas had expanded Medicaid, many of these individuals would be caught by the safety net. However, because Texas has not expanded Medicaid—many of these people and their families will fall in the coverage gap, meaning they will have earned too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to qualify for ACA subsides in the marketplace. Hence they will have no healthcare during a pandemic or have to pay approximately $1,697 plus up to a 2% administrative fee a month for them and their families through COBRA(based on average monthly premium cost for employer covered plans in the South Region in 2019 Kaiser Family Foundation Survey). Texas needs to ACT NOW to expand Medicaid."

ADDENDUM

Based on data from the Economic Policy Institute: 9.2 million workers likely lost their employer-provided health insurance in the past four weeks. If this national ESI coverage loss rate holds true in Texas (which had 1.02 million people file for unemployment over the last four weeks) then approximately 553,860 of the newly unemployed won’t qualify for special enrollment in the marketplace or Medicaid. This will be particularly bad for people with pre-existing conditions like hypertension, diabetes, or heart disease because people with these chronic illnesses are more likely to end up in the hospital and die from COVID-19 than healthy individuals. (Note: their children may qualify for Medicaid, but they themselves will be without coverage) The other approximately 466,140 Texans who’ve lost their jobs and their coverage will qualify for a coverage-loss Marketplace special enrollment period or Medicaid.