What to Do If Youre Laid Off and Too Young for Medicare

What can a laid-off worker over 50 do to get health insurance?Besides staying healthy until Medicare kicks in at age 65, the answer is: Not a lot.“Finding affordable health insurance is a huge challenge for people 50 and older,” said Alan Weil, senior vice president of public policy for AARP.“There may be options, but most of them are not very good.”About 60 percent of people younger than 65 get their health insurance through employers, according to the health-care policy research foundation KFF.

But the coverage disappears when workers are laid off.While many replace their insurance when they land a new job, older workers, on average, remain unemployed for much longer than younger ones, with some never earning a new paycheck.Among workers employed for at least three years who lost their jobs from 2023 through 2025, 72.9 percent of those under 55 found jobs by January 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The rate of re-employment for those 55 to 64, however, was 57.3 percent.While just 9 percent of the younger workers who lost jobs during those years left the work force entirely, 21 percent of those 55 and older never returned.Besides losing their health insurance, laid-off workers take a financial hit that makes it a hardship to pay for the few health care options available to the unemployed.

“Among long-tenured displaced workers who returned to full-time wage and salary employment, only about half were earning as much or more than they had in the job they lost,” Deepali Vyas, head of data at the talent advisory firm ZRG Partners, said in an email.If you do lose your job, check with your human resources department to find out if your workplace coverage ends on your last day or continues until the end of the month, said Stephanie Heathman, chief executive of the HR Innovator Group.“Employees should never assume that a final paycheck deduction means their health coverage continues through the end of the month,” Ms.

Heathman said.�...