Parents reported avoiding health care for their children during the pandemic for fear that their children could be exposed to the coronavirus. And parents with lower incomes were more likely to report this avoidance.
According to an April 2021 survey, coronavirus concerns led more than 1 in 4 nonelderly adults to delay or forgo their own health care in the previous 12 months and 1 in 10 to do so in the previous 30 days.
This period’s coverage loss among citizen children with any noncitizen parents reversed much of the coverage gains they had experienced between 2013 and 2016. And the coverage loss was larger than that for citizen children with citizen parents.
Despite losses in jobs, income, and employer-sponsored insurance during the pandemic, an analysis of changes in health insurance coverage among nonelderly adults between 2019 and 2021 shows the national uninsurance rate held steady at 11 percent.
