Seth Berkowitz, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the division of general medicine and epidemiology, co-published a research study letter in JAMA Internal Medicine, focused on unemployment insurance, health-related social needs, health care access and mental health during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Results showed unemployment insurance benefits may help mitigate economic disruption wrought by the pandemic.
The cross-sectional study used data from Household Pulse surveys collected from June to July, 2020, and included working-age adults who reported current household income disruption from pandemic-related job loss. Receiving unemployment insurance (UI) was defined as using UI benefits to meet spending needs. Study outcomes were food insufficiency, missing the last month’s house payment, lack of confidence in affording the next month’s food or housing, being uninsured, delaying health care, delaying non-covid-19 related health care, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms.
Households that received UI were associated with fewer health-related social needs, less health care delay and better mental health. Berkowitz described the connection between losing jobless benefits and health in the NPR report “Losing Jobless Benefits Is Not Only Stressful, It Might Be Harmful to Health.”
“It’s incredibly disruptive for people…that can be especially true for people with chronic illnesses — diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol — who may no longer be able to afford their medicine.”
Berkowitz said that people who had their income disrupted by the pandemic and received unemployment insurance had a much lower risk of food insufficiency, a much lower risk of missing housing payments, lower depressive symptoms, lower anxiety symptoms, and were less likely to delay care. He also added that as UI reform develops, he hopes policy makers will recognize the connection between health and pandemic assistance and the important health benefits that UI can offer working-age people in the US.
Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD, director of research at the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care, co-authored the study.
Find the JAMA Internal Medicine study here. Read the NPR report here.