Giving Compass' Take:

• As concerns about coronavirus loom over this Father's Day, an article at Urban Institute calls for policy adjustments to support uninsured dads.

• Uninsured dads are disproportionately members of low-income or minority communities. What can you do to support changes in insurance benefits for marginalized communities? 

• Learn about how a lack of insurance deeply affects children.

For many dads, Father’s Day is a time to relax and enjoy time with their children. But for about four million dads without health insurance coverage, their celebration may be overshadowed by worries about their own and their family’s health and well-being.

Dads with incomes below 138 percent of the federal poverty level were nearly four times more likely to be uninsured than dads with higher incomes. Compared with white fathers, Black fathers were about twice as likely to be uninsured, and Hispanic fathers were more than four times as likely to be uninsured. Further, nearly one in five dads living in the South lacked health insurance coverage.

And the challenges uninsured dads face extend to areas of material hardship that hurt them and their families. For example, in 2017–18, 14.8 percent of uninsured dads experienced low or very low food security in their family, 40.6 percent were very or somewhat worried about paying housing costs, and 45.9 percent were very or somewhat worried about paying monthly bills.

Both uninsurance and material hardship have likely worsened since the start of the pandemic and economic crisis, and dads who lost jobs and insurance coverage will likely struggle to access health care and could face mounting financial hardships. Early evidence indicates steep increases in unemployment because of the coronavirus outbreak, with more than 4 in 10 parents reporting their family lost a job or work-related income as of late March and early April 2020.

To honor dads this Father’s Day, providing more and better information about available coverage options and their benefits, offering enrollment assistance to connect more uninsured dads to coverage, and, ultimately, expanding affordable coverage options would be a good start.

Read the full article about uninsured dads at Urban Institute.