Policy
Meet the Uninsured
Published August 24, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
At our Universal Health Care blog, Tim has an entire category concerning the uninsured and underinsured. (You need to be reading his blog.) But for those of you with little time to familiarize yourself with the 47M or so Americans estimated to lack adequate health insurance, the New York Times this weekend offers a handy little summary of just who these folks are:
- The working poor are the majority, at about 30M people.
- The "better-off", as judged by total household income of up to $75k per year. Includes roommates, non-family households, etc. D'oh!
- Young adults - this is the mythical group who rejects health care right before they go bungie jumping and compete in a triathalon. Irrepressible youngsters! Turns out most are poor. See the first bullet.
- Medicaid-eligible poor, who are not enrolled for one reason or another. This is the most popular crew featured in the "all their emergency room care is bankrupting us!" storyline.
- The underinsured - crazy deductibles and restrictions make health insurance theoretical.
- Non-citizens.
The NYT points out which potential reform bills would help who, but ends on this sharper point: "Any nation as rich as ours ought to guarantee health coverage for all of its residents."
Empower Women, End Poverty
Published August 21, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
If you haven't yet read the series on women and poverty at The New York Times, I highly recommend adding it to your weekend reading list. The paternalistic on-line title notwithstanding, the collection of articles details the collective economic improvements in poor communities and households resulting from investing in women's and girl's education, health, bodily safety and autonomy, and work opportunities. The focus of the issue is mainly on the developing world, where the majority of the world's poor - and poor women - live. This is always somewhat frustrating for domestic anti-poverty activists, as if our nation is a haven of gender equity and parity. Nonetheless, there's some important lessons on education, policy and power for those of us fighting for equality and an end to poverty stateside.
Ask Congress About Medicaid
Published August 19, 2009 @ 01:04PM PT
After Congress failed to meet self-imposed deadlines to put together a comprehensive plan before the August recess, it's clear healthcare reform has run into some major issues. Some of them - like the wailings of a wacky former Governor about "death panels" (sounds like bad siding) are easily dismissed. Others are issues that are not likely to go away, and may well affect what happens to healthcare reform when Congress resumes in September.
The press and many progressive advocates have latched onto the "public plan", shorthand for some sort of government run insurance plan which would serve as a backstop for households when no other insurance option was available. The "public plan" has come to symbolize, for the right, the threat of a "government takeover" of healthcare... and for the left it has become a rallying cry of necessity if reform is to be done right.
Neither is entirely the case. First, I agree with other progressive advocates urging you to call your members of Congress about healthcare reform. But rather than emphasizing the public plan, if you're concerned about healthcare and poverty... ask them how they plan to defend and strengthen Medicaid.
President Promotes Renting
Published August 18, 2009 @ 04:33PM PT
At least $8B, and possibly more than $10B, in stimulus and federal budget funds will be used to (re-)invest in affordable renting housing in the U.S. The Boston Globe describes this as an "ideological shift" away from Bush's Wild West Ownership Society; Calculated Risk points out that the Obama Administration is harnessing an existing trend: the supply of rental housing has been increasing since 2004, mostly due to conversions of ownership properties.
There's two elements to this initiative that I like: $4B to upgrade existing public housing (a drop in the bucket, but a drop, nonetheless!) and the purchase of foreclosed homes to be converted into affordable rental units.
Commenter Lori raises an interesting point over at Suburban Guerilla in response to this announcement: why aren't we pursuing more radical, less costly innovations to seriously expand the stock of affordable housing - including homeownership - in the US? Her actual statement reflects why Bush's unregulated, overzealous ownership dream went so awry: "If you want to have a nation of home owners, you have to build housing that people on the bottom can afford to buy." And is it really a good idea to leave renters at the mercy of landlords? She voices support for the re-use of shipping containers as low-cost (and roomy by my condo's standards) rent-to-own housing.
Concerning landlords, I think tenants' rights is a related but separate issue here. One thing I would emphasize is that federally rental initiatives like this will partner mostly with local non-profits and municipalities to refurbish and improve rental housing, which to me is a necessary alternative to the current private market purchasers of foreclosures who are using them as investment properties (29% of the homebuying market). From living in a neighborhood with an owner-occupancy rate of only 25%, moving the rental inventory from the hands of absentee landlords to community-based non-profits sounds like a great idea to me.
(Photo by TheTruthAbout...)
Boycotting Whole Foods
Published August 18, 2009 @ 04:28AM PT
If you're like me, you've been watching steam gather behind the boycott of Whole Foods (WFM) over CEO John Mackey's anti-healthcare reform op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times has a handy round-up of the various rationales behind the boycott - I'm partial to Matt Yglesias's point that it challenges the outsized "social and political power" of CEOs in this country. I'm also delighted to see Mackey's customers - typically affluent, politically liberal - push back on Mackey's political ideology. WFM, from most accounts, provides generous healthcare and is a comparatively good retail/service job - so this isn't a boycott about workers' rights in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a pointed rebuke of the idea that we lack the right to healthcare.
Saving with SaveNYC
Published August 17, 2009 @ 05:00AM PT
SaveNYC is an asset-building program run by the City of NY that encourages low-wage tax payers to set aside a portion of their Earned Income Tax Credit refund and receive matching savings in return. Initial results have been promising; 61% of participants saved $500 - the qualifying amount to receive the matching funds. More than three-quarters of the accounts remained open after one year.
Asset building initiatives are anti-poverty programs that help low-income people save more to use towards purchases in homes, small businesses, or education - the big ticket items that may help households build equity or earn more income to eventually exit poverty. What policymakers like about SaveNYC is its demonstration that local governments can play a leadership role in financial empowerment anti-poverty initiatives.
Action Alert: Modernize Poverty Measurement
Published August 11, 2009 @ 01:01PM PT
Two bills have been introduced in Congress to update our federal poverty measure that is based on an extremely antiquated estimated proportion of a family's budget spent on food. Both the House and Senate bills rely on National Academy of Science recommendations in which "the cost of food, clothing, housing, utilities and medical expenses be considered. Income from non-cash benefits, such as food stamps and government tax credits, should also be counted" in an updated poverty measure (right now, these social supports can tip people over the poverty line and deny them much needed assistance).
The linked news piece above shows that by following the NAS recommendations, the new poverty line for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) in 2007 $$ would jump from about $21k to almost $28k, an increase of almost 25%. To my eye, it still looks extremely low. We really need to make geographic considerations when tying assistance programs to estimated costs of living.
This reform is at the heart of the work we do as anti-poverty activists. So far, the House bill, introduced in June, has 10 sponsors, all Dems, and has probably gone on to a quiet convalescence in the House Ways and Means and House Oversight and Govt. Reform Committees. The Senate Bill is less than a week old, introduced by Dodd and co-sponsored by Sen. Bingaman of New Mexico (D). It's gone on to the Senate Health (etc.) Committee, which might have its hands full right about now.
Healthcare reform or not, this is one issue that can't wait. Contact Your Representatives (and Committee Members above) and tell them to support an updated poverty measure today!
(Difference in NAS and official poverty measures, from The Stanford Ctr for the Study of Poverty & Inequality)
