Eleven days after Ann Gatti was laid off from Active Day Adult Day Care Center in Delran when it was forced to close, she lost her health insurance.
Like millions of New Jersey workers, Gatti’s health benefits were tied to her employer. Amid the global coronavirus outbreak, she’s praying she can obtain something through the Affordable Care Act marketplace to help cover her blood pressure and cholesterol medicine.
Gov. Phil Murphy is petitioning the federal government for an open enrollment period for the state’s health care exchange, he said Friday, for Gatti and thousands of other New Jersey residents who have lost their job, and subsequently, their health insurance.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re dealing with everyone here, whether they have health insurance or not. It’s a right, not a privilege,” the governor said during his Friday press briefing on the state of the outbreak.
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The Murphy administration is also “actively looking at options for what we can do for folks who have lost their jobs,” chief counsel Matt Platkin said.
President Donald Trump has declined to reopen enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, which would have made it easier for people who recently lost their jobs to obtain health insurance, Politico reported.
The decision was sharply criticized by New Jersey U.S. Sean. Cory Booker, who called it “the height of callousness and irresponsibility."
“We’re in the midst of a global pandemic and people need health care coverage, yet the President is denying people access to it," Booker said. "At a time when our health care system is already under enormous strain, it makes no sense to willingly allow even more individuals to go without coverage.”
More than 6 million Americans — including 206,253 New Jersey residents — have filed for unemployment due to the economic fallout of the spreading coronavirus, which has forced all non-essential businesses closed and most of the state’s residents to stay at home.
Roughly 57% of New Jersey residents depended on their employer for health care in 2018, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit focused on health policies. About 30% rely on Medicare or Medicaid.
Millions are scrambling for health insurance, but the scramble looks better in New Jersey than other states, said Rebecca Kolins Givan, co-director of the Center for Work and Health at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.
New Jersey offers the NJ Family Care Program, a state and federally funded public health insurance program, she noted, and also participates in the ACA, or Obamacare, exchange.
While the state has a wider safety net compared to other states, Kolins Givan said the federal government should do more in its next federal stimulus bill, including reimbursing employers who are keeping their workers on health insurance.
And people may be feeling anxious about paying premiums and out-of-pocket costs when everybody is afraid of losing the job and getting sick, she explained.
Gatti, who previously went three years without health insurance, said she got in contact with the insurance marketplace. She was told she would pay $168 per month, and she opted against dental insurance, but had to show proof she lost benefits before she’s approved.
“I’m okay with that,” she said. “I’m going to be alright for a couple a weeks.”
The true number of people who lost health insurance is most likely “significantly higher," because policy holders often cover additional family members, Kolins Givan added.
“A moment like this really lays bare the significant downside of health insurance and access to health care being tied to employment,” she said.
State officials on Friday reported 4,372 new positive tests and 113 new deaths confirmed in the last 24 hours, bringing the statewide total to at least 29,895 cases and 646 deaths.
NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.
J. Dale Shoemaker is a reporter on the data & investigations team. He can be reached at jshoemaker@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JDale_Shoemaker.
Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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