Of 1,332 unemployed individuals in the Detroit area interviewed in late 1983, 51% did not have health insurance. Lack of insurance was directly related to length of unemployment. Of those unemployed 3 months or less, 31% had no insurance, as compared with 56% of those unemployed more than 3 years. For the most part, these were not the chronically uninsured: 78% of them were insured when they were employed. Three fourths of those without insurance were not covered by Medicaid either. These findings suggest that during the latest economic recession, the problem of health insurance loss due to losing one's job was more severe than had been assumed by most policymakers.