Many Divorced Women Have Losing Their Insurance To Look Forward To

As we inch closer to the full-effect version of Obamacare, on schedule for 2014, it appears that one significant group that’ll be benefiting are America’s divorced women. After compiling data drawn from women 26 to 64 years of age between 1996 and 2007, researchers from the University of Michigan have determined that divorced women are most likely to lose their insurance coverage in the wake of the fiscal cliff. The head of the study acknowledges their findings: “Given that approximately 1 million divorces occur each year in the U.S., and that many women get health coverage through their husbands, the impact is quite substantial,” adding that:

“Insurance loss may compound the economic losses women experience after divorce and contribute to as well as compound previously documented health declines following divorce.”

More specifically, 65,000 to 115,000 women lose their health coverage within months after getting divorced. Particularly in peril are moderate-income women, who aren’t eligible for Medicaid or other public insurance, but are unable to afford private insurance without filing as a dependent on her husband (one-quarter of these “dependents” are uninsured within six months of their divorce). Women with their own healthcare coverage from work are less likely to lose it than the others in this group (11% compared with 17%), but it’s not like jobs with benefits. This also aligns with previous findings that unmarried women were between 1.5 and 2 times more likely to be uninsured than married women.