Plans along these lines have been key to the coronavirus response in Europe. About half of U.S. states already offer such programs, but they’re limited in scope and many businesses are unaware they exist. Biden promises to “dramatically scale up” the programs, and there’s backing for the idea among conservative economists too, including Kevin Hassett, former head of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers.
“We’d far rather see everyone have a 50% job, and their health insurance and stay connected to work, than to have them pick half of their workers having a job,” said Rachel Greszler, a research fellow at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation.
‘Automatic as Possible’
Health insurance is another area where the safety net failed for millions of Americans. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that about since the pandemic began, roughly 6.2 million workers lost access to their employer-sponsored coverage.
The Medicaid program for low-income groups, which acts as a stabilizer, has seen increased enrollment. Still, Matthew Fiedler, a fellow with the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, says the uninsured rate has likely risen over the last six months. In states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, some people found they were earning too much to qualify for that program, but too little for marketplace subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
There’s a case for stabilizer policies to be expanded into other areas too.
Indivar Dutta-Gupta, co-executive director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, says it makes sense to offer automatic paid leave to parents when schools get unexpectedly shut down – which can happen in extreme weather events like hurricanes or fires as well as health emergencies.
One of the most ambitious proposals, which won backing from some of Biden’s primary-season rivals, is for a federal jobs guarantee in which the government would act as employer of last resort.
One overarching lesson of the pandemic, says Fiedler, is the same as it’s been in previous slumps: “Making as many things automatic as possible could dramatically improve the policy response in the next recession -- whether it’s caused by a pandemic or not.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.