What new pandemic unemployment benefits taught us about health

<p>The COVID-19 pandemic caused an enormous wave of disruption to the U.S. economy, leading the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/unemployment-rate-rises-to-record-high-14-point-7-percent-in-april-2020.htm">unemployment rate to rise to a record high of 14.7% in April 2020</a>. </p><p>While unemployment has since improved — <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">the unemployment rate in January 2021 was 6.3%</a> — America has yet to reach the employment levels it held before the pandemic.</p><p>In response to so many out of work, the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/coronavirus/unemployment-insurance">Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act</a> in March 2020 expanded eligibility for unemployment benefits. Within that legislative package, the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) increased the amount of money people could receive through such programs.<br> <br>FPUC expired for the first time in July 2020, leading to insurance beneficiaries receiving smaller benefits.</p><p><a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20180507.274276/full/">Employment and job security is a known social determinant of health</a> and the relationship to suddenly losing a job and a person's health isn't yet widely understood. To study the how FPUC may have affected unmet health-related social needs, Seth Berkowitz from the <a href="https://www.unc.edu/">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</a> and Sanjay Basu from <a href="https://hms.harvard.edu/">Harvard Medical School</a> examined these needs and mental health among unemployment insurance beneficiaries before and after the initial expiration of FPUC.</p><p>Published in the March 2021 edition of <em>Health Affairs</em>, Berkowitz and Basu's research found that the initial FPUC expiration was associated with a 10-percentage-point increase in risk for self-reported <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01990">missed housing payments</a>. In addition, risk for food insufficien