Additional Medicaid coverage enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic helped keep the number of uninsured people down at record lows in 2022 even as poverty levels soared, according to a Sept. 12 New York Times report.
Poverty levels in the U.S. rose to a rate of 12.4 percent in 2022 from 7.8 percent the previous year. Poverty among children more than doubled to the same 12.4 percent level, the report said.
The increases followed two years of "historically large declines in poverty," mainly because of expanded safety-net programs during the pandemic. Once those expired, cost of living challenges meant many families were struggling to stay ahead, putting poverty rates at similar levels to those seen pre-pandemic.
The pandemic program of a temporary freeze in Medicaid redeterminations did not expire like the others in 2022, however, boosting insurance rates.
"Because of that program, the share of Americans without health insurance matched a record low last year of 7.9 percent," the Times said.
Now that such redeterminations are happening as of April, the uninsured rate is probably increasing, according to the report.
As of Aug. 1, at least 3.8 million people have lost such coverage, according to KFF data cited by Becker's.