Coronavirus Is Ripping Away Health Insurance for Hourly Workers

Alma Quiroz is a housekeeper at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, one of the country’s biggest hotspots for COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus. Her work schedule has recently been cut from 40 hours per week to just eight hours. With a reduced schedule comes the threat that she will also lose health insurance benefits from working at least 80 hours each month.

“I’m worried if my son gets sick,” she said. “We automatically lose our health insurance because I’m not getting enough hours to be eligible. It’s very difficult not working enough hours, worrying how I’m going to pay rent. I can get scheduled and they will call the day before to let me know they don’t have enough rooms to clean, so I have to stay home with no pay. I’m worried about affording food to provide for my family.”

As the virus spreads rapidly and invisibly across the U.S., low-wage workers and those in the service industry like Quiroz will be hit extra hard. Most are unable to work from home, many can’t afford to take time off for childcare if schools close, and paid time off of any sort remains a rarity for them in many parts of the U.S. But hourly workers have another challenge: If they get laid off or have their hours cut in a coronavirus-related economic downturn, they could lose their employer-provided health insurance and, in a bitter bit of irony, become even more vulnerable to the outbreak.