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COVID-19's impact on older workers: employment, income, and Medicare spending
COVID-19's impact on older workers: employment, income, and Medicare spending
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Issue brief (Commonwealth Fund)
- Author(s):
- Jacobson, Gretchen, author
Feder, Judith M., author
Radley, David C., author - Contributor(s):
- Commonwealth Fund, issuing body.
- Publication:
- [New York, N.Y.] : The Commonwealth Fund, October 2020
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Coronavirus Infections -- economics
Income
Medicare -- economics
Pandemics -- economics
Unemployment
Aged
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- ISSUE. Although the disproportionate health impact of COVID-19 on older people is well known, its impact on their financial well-being has received little attention. GOAL. Assess older U.S. adults' pandemic-related loss of employment, income, and employer-sponsored health coverage and gauge the potential effect of these losses on federal spending for Medicare. METHODS. Analysis of data from the American Community Survey (2012–2018) pertaining to characteristics of older workers, as well as data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on unemployment by age and types of jobs. KEY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS. In 2018, prior to the pandemic, more than one in six Medicare beneficiaries, or 10.1 million people, were employed, including 9.0 million beneficiaries age 65 and older and 1.1 million under age 65. During the pandemic, about 11 percent of people 65 and older, or about 1.1 million people, have lost their jobs. These job losses could result in many older workers shifting from employer-sponsored health insurance to Medicare, increasing federal spending for Medicare. The job losses and income reductions among Medicare beneficiaries also could threaten their financial security, resulting in more beneficiaries qualifying for Part D low-income subsidies, Medicare Savings Programs, or even Medicaid. During this time, Medicare will serve as an important safety net, but policies to encourage the continued employment of older workers could have long-term effects on Medicare spending and people's financial security for the remainder of their years.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (9 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101773085 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101773085