Nearly 1.6 million people have purchased health insurance through Covered California, state officials said Tuesday, a number that reflects the state's high unemployment rate as millions of people have lost their jobs — and their employer-sponsored health coverage — during the pandemic.
Altogether, nearly 200,000 more people have purchased health insurance this year compared with the same time period last year, a 14% increase. The deadline to purchase coverage is Jan. 31.
“I anticipate we will end this year with more people than ever insured through Covered California, which is not great news for people who have lost their jobs,” Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said. “They may have lost their jobs, but they don't need to lose coverage.”
Covered California's enrollment declined three years in a row until 2020, when a new state law took effect that imposed a tax on people who don't have health insurance. That same year, California spent millions of dollars on subsidies to help middle-income earners pay their monthly health insurance premiums — the first and only state to do that.
Enrollment surged again last summer, peaking at 1.53 million people after an additional 289,000 people purchased coverage during a special enrollment period because of the coronavirus. The new number announced Tuesday — 1.57 million — comes after the state again imposed a stay-at-home order on most of the state following a surge of new cases. California surpassed 30,000 coronavirus-related deaths on Monday.
—Adam Beam, Associated Press