By Joan Stephenson, JAMA Health Forum, September 11, 2020
The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and the economic devastation it has caused have made vehicular breadlines a familiar image in the news media: cars lining up for miles as people seek assistance from food banks to feed themselves and their families. With the expiration in late July of the $600 weekly federal supplement to unemployment benefits—and efforts for further relief stalled in Congress—the problem may well get worse.
Survey data from the US Census Bureau reveals that during the week ending July 21, 12.1% of adults reported that their households sometimes or often experienced food insufficiency in the previous week, up from 9.8% in early May 2020. Those figures are considerably higher in lower-income households, with 21% of those earning less than $50 000 per year and 29% of those earning less than $25 000 going hungry at times.
Although food banks and food pantries have scrambled to meet this growing need, 1 program that appears to be well positioned to help families with low incomes is Medicaid, according to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). The KFF analysis is based on data from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey, as well as data from the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. “As the health insurance program for low-income children and many adults, Medicaid reaches many people who may be facing food insecurity and could be a potential vehicle to address this growing problem, especially because of the strong association between food security and health,” the authors noted.
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