New research shows that 68 percent don’t know what they could do if their plan wasn’t available.
The majority of Americans don’t know what health insurance options are available to them in the incident that they lose their existing coverage.
This is a troubling statistic as this scenario is currently an unfortunate reality for millions of Americans.
Layoffs resulting from the pandemic have left many people without their employer sponsored health plans. Regardless, only just under 1 in 3 people know the options available to them. The healthinsurance.com survey determined that 68 percent of people don’t know what health insurance options they have if their current plans were lost.
Moreover, 40 percent of the survey respondents said that it should be the responsibility of the government to make certain everyone is covered during a pandemic. Respondents across all participant age groups also stated that they felt medical coverage is directly related to the COVID-19. Among the responses, 56 percent feel those with a health plan receive better medical care than those who are uninsured. Another 33 percent think seniors covered by Medicare Advantage receive better COVID-19 treatment than those on lower-level plans or who are uninsured.
Beyond confusion over health insurance options, the concerns over COVID-19 coverage are high.
The survey showed that 46 percent of respondents already knew someone who had received a positive test result for COVID-19. Moreover, 25 percent said they knew someone who had died as a result of COVID-19 related complications.
The research also showed that the 90 percent of the respondents feel that if a vaccine for COVID-19 becomes available, it should be free for everyone. Seventy-eight percent said they would get the COVID-19 vaccine if it was available, and 64 percent said that if there was a vaccine, everyone should be required to get it.
Though 45 percent expressed hopefulness that a cure for COVID-19 would be discovered, the research showed that fears over the corona virus remain strong regardless of health insurance options. Among the survey respondents, 40 percent 
had avoided a hospital visit for a non-COVID-19 health problem out of infection risk fears. Seventy four percent would willingly use a mail-in COVID-19 test.
