Working People & Health Coverage Gaps

Community Catalyst and United for Respect are working together to organize with millions of workers with low-wages for health coverage and care options. Together, we dug into the lack of health coverage options for working people in 4 states – Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas – in a new report, Health Care Coverage Gaps Among the Working Poor: Low-Wage Workers, Medicaid Eligibility and Employer Subsidized Plans. Here’s what we found:
- Over 2 million people live in the coverage gap in states where their elected leaders have not expanded Medicaid. They make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford any public or private insurance plans.
- Because of systemic racism and historic systems of oppression, 60 percent of those working people in the Medicaid coverage gap are Black, Latinx/a/o and people of color.
- Many people in the gap are adults working at large corporations like Walmart and Amazon, who also have a responsibility to provide quality health coverage for their workers.
Without access to health care, I can’t see a doctor or go to a hospital when I need it. I just try to fix myself, but I have arthritis in my legs and hips. If I’m in too much pain, I’m forced to miss work.
Read more about Mark and millions of workers like him in Health Care Coverage Gaps Among the Working Poor: Low-Wage Workers, Medicaid Eligibility and Employer Subsidized Plans.