Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Schumer,
The undersigned organizations —a diverse group of employers, industries, health care stakeholders, unions, patient and disease groups and health care advocates — urge you to take immediate action to protect the health care of the millions of Americans who have lost their health care coverage due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are asking you to help the 30+ million recently unemployed Americans afford to stay on their employer-provided health care for a temporary time during this unprecedented public health and economic crisis.
The U.S. economy has suffered great losses because of COVID-19 and Congress has already taken steps to support business and provide stimulus checks to some Americans. But Congress must act swiftly to support health care coverage for workers who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.
Employer-provided coverage has been the backbone of our health care system for decades. Before COVID-19, the employer-provided health care system protected more than half of all Americans and their families. With millions of Americans losing their jobs every week, we urge Congress to step in and provide additional COBRA support and similar continuation coverage to help people pay for health insurance, as you did during the 2009 recession and for workers losing coverage due to trade adjustments in 2019. This would allow millions of Americans to stay on the plans they like and want to keep.
Americans do not want to lose access to their doctor and they can’t afford brand-new deductibles that would come with a new plan.
We want to get America’s economy thriving and our workers back to work. But until we are safe from the public health and economic threats of COVID-19, it’s time to give Americans the peace of mind that comes with maintaining affordable health insurance.
Let’s work together to keep health care affordable and available.
Sincerely,
President & CEO
