Federal
Medicaid Expansion Talking Points
Published September 03, 2009 @ 01:28PM PT
Via Ezra, I see Families USA has listed 10 reasons why we need health care reform. The #1 Reason? "Fully federally funded" Medicaid expansion that will insure millions of low-income households nationwide.
They helpfully extrapolate on each point in the easily digestible document. Here are your talking points on Medicaid expansion, an issue we've been tackling here at Poverty in America.
The bill will increase Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the federal poverty level (~$24k for a family of 3 in '09). This expansion alone would cover more than one-third of the currently uninsured, or about 17M people.
We need this expansion because so far we're leaving millions of poor adults without access to health care. Medicaid now is fairly restrictive in who qualifies among the low-income. In only 7 states are low-income childless adults currently eligible, and in only DC and 16 states cover parents at 100% of the poverty level.
The remainder of the report is super handy in explaining market regulation, the public option, coverage for kids, cost control, and other reasons why we need health care reform. Read up and gear up for President Obama's speech next week!
Low-Wage Workers Routinely Cheated
Published September 02, 2009 @ 12:46PM PT
A powerhouse of scholars has just released a comprehensive report documenting systemic, "widespread" wage violations in the low-wage market. 68% of more than 4,000 low-wage workers surveyed (average wage was $8.02/hour) had experienced at least one wage violation in the week prior. Wage violations included: not receiving overtime pay, not being given any breaks, having deductions illegally taken from paychecks, being forced to work past their scheduled finishing time, having their tips inappropriately garnished, and being paid less than the legal minimum wage. Critical to keep in mind as you advocate for workers' rights: the overall quality of the the workplace correlates strongly to the likelihood of wage violations.
Obama Restores Civil Rights
Published September 01, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Good news this morning: the Obama Administration is "restoring" the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice - the agency for anti-discrimination enforcement in the areas of housing, voting rights, employment, and so forth. Under Bush, the division was notoriously politicized, with conservative and Christian loyalists with little civil rights experience recruited and charged with prioritizing religious cases at the expense of the division's core focus on racial/ethnic discrimination. Why am I writing about this at Poverty in America? Because discrimination has historically reinforced racial, gender and other forms of inequality in housing, jobs, etc. - leading to the disproportionately high rates of women and people of color living in poverty.
Medicaid versus the Kindness of Strangers
Published August 28, 2009 @ 08:48AM PT
In the wake of Ted Kennedy's death, healthcare reform is getting another look. That look may or may not mean a renewed sense of progress come September, when Congress resumes what is sure to be a contentious debate. But it's clear that the kind of government role Kennedy believed in, on healthcare and other issues, will not be forgotten soon.
Acting on that vision, and getting meaningful reform for the consitencies Kennedy advocated for most, will not be easy, and in some ways got much harder with Kennedy's deterioration and death.
Ted Kennedy & the Future of American Liberalism
Published August 27, 2009 @ 02:31PM PT
In Boston, local news channels have been running live coverage of Senator Ted Kennedy's death since it was announced. A motorcade from Hyannisport through Boston has just wrapped up; Kennedy's body will lie in repose until tomorrow evening. President Obama will speak at the Senator's funeral on Saturday; all former Presidents will attend. This ceremony, in its pomp and public draw, is Reaganesque. And like Reagan's passing for conservatives, Senator Kennedy's death signals, I fear, the end of an era. As I watch, I wonder if we're also witnessing American liberalism's funeral.
How Many Calories Does $1 Buy?
Published August 27, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
The answer depends largely on what type of food you're purchasing.
As I was reading through the recent TIME Magzine cover story on the real price of cheap food, I came across reference to a study conducted by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study examined how many calories, of certain kinds of food, one dollar can buy you. They determined that:
A dollar could buy 1,200 calories of potato chips or 875 calories of soda but just 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories of fresh fruit.
Yeah, you read that right. A dollar can buy you almost 10 times more calories from potato chips than it can from fresh fruit. Is it any wonder that obesity and food security are so intricately tied to income level in this country? I think not.
This statistic has a lot to do with why many people who do not have adequate access to healthy foods are often unhealthy and overweight. Really, it's all about the energy density of the foods we eat. Let me explain.
Katrina Reflections 4 Years Out
Published August 26, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
At field hearings of the Congressional Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity in New Orleans last week, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO) contrasted the polite behavior of the audience with the recent inflammatory behavior of participants in town hall sessions across the country regarding health care reform. Congressman Cleaver stated that this difference was curious to him, because as he saw it, Gulf Coast residents have so much to legitimately be angry about. But local advocates and residents can easily explain away the difference—we are exhausted.
Saturday will mark the four-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on the Gulf Coast back in 2005. It is a little daunting to try to write a post that incorporates the meaning imbued in this anniversary, and I’ve been pondering about what to write for several weeks now. In doing so, I have been confronted with how differently I felt about the date in years past than I do this year.
