Worry about Covid-19 health care costs looms larger among people of color

Just as Covid-19 has revealed racial disparities in who gets sick and who dies, a new poll from West Health and Gallup shows a divide between non-white and white Americans over incurring health care costs should they become infected. More than half of non-white people (those who identified as Black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander) said they were “extremely concerned” or “concerned” about paying for health care if they were diagnosed with Covid-19. Just under a third of white people expressed that level of concern. The poll also finds that among workers holding onto jobs they want to leave because they fear losing benefits, that calculation is almost twice as likely to be made by non-white workers as by white workers.