Research
Maine a Medicaid Model?
Published October 12, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
The Commonwealth Fund has released new data demonstrating "shockingly wide" health disparities across the 50 states. This is the third annual survey, and one reflecting data from 2007, so expect the overall state-by-state performance to get much worse in the coming years.
What's interesting about the results is the exceptions to the general correlation between states with higher incomes and lower poverty rates also having better resident health. In particular, Maine is singled out for its position in the Top 5 states with good health despite being a relatively poor place. Some reasons? It offers Medicaid to childless adults, a rarity, and requires stringent information sharing among providers in order to track and respond to issues like repeat hospitalizations.
The Medicaid extension seems key here, as efforts like SCHIP have improved the "medical safety" net for kids, yet ever more adults are losing health insurance and going without necessary care. According to researchers, places like Minnesota or Massachusetts that perform well also show "a greater willingness to use government to improve social conditions." Massachusetts has the fewest uninsured adults, with only 7% lacking coverage.
The moral of the story for thinking about universal health care? Besides that we should maybe be looking to Maine and other states for critical best practices?
"The nation doesn't have one system and one reality, it has at least 50 each with its own economic, social and demographic characteristics."
"States cannot go it alone. Health reform is needed on a national level."
(Photo of Greenville, ME by Lee Coursey)
Rural Child Poverty Widespread
Published October 03, 2009 @ 11:15AM PT
Thanks to Diane, we get a glimpse here of rural poverty in the U.S., a topic typically overshadowed by a national focus on urban poverty. Not surprising, given 80% of the country is classified as metropolitan, meaning there's a significant density of people and homes in the majority of the nation. But rural poverty is just as troubling and worrisome as poverty in the cities and suburbs, particularly given how many children are poor in rural America.
The Economic Research Service provides some #s from the recession's impact on rural America: Unemployment rose more sharply in metro regions, though it's about 9% nationwide. In rural communities, minorities and teens have the highest unemployment rates. Almost 1 in 4 kids in rural areas are poor, especially in communities with high minority populations. And well more than half of all rural counties have high child poverty rates where at least 1 in 5 children are poor. Child poverty is highest in well-known chronically poor areas: the Mississippi Delta, on Native American reservations, and along the border with Mexico.
Childhood poverty in rural America is a chronic problem; one that activists, advocates and policymakers are still trying to understand. It appears to be a perennial lack of educational and job opportunities, particularly for rural African-Americans, who have lived for generations with resources bypassing their communities and no particular means to get out. This is a topic I know very little about, but I do know this: the recession is by no means over, and if there was ever a time to refocus our priorities on these chronically poor, chronically forgotten communities, it's now.
Single Moms Just As Good
Published September 30, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
In a non-news flash for those of us who have succeeded despite growing up in the dreaded den of broke-a** dysfunction that is the female-headed-household, i.e., with a single mom, a new study of 5,000 families reveals that "Family stability -- regardless of whether it's a one- or two-parent household" is what's key for children to thrive. Yet, the research shows that for black children alone there were clear differences on math and reading test scores for those kids in 2-parent families. I, like so many activists, scholars and proud kids of single moms, am trying to figure out why this racial difference persists.
Incomes Up 14% through Opportunity NYC
Published September 22, 2009 @ 10:03AM PT
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is hosting the Organization of American States today to discuss anti-poverty initiatives in the Americas. Featured at the meeting with be the City of New York's Opportunity NYC, a program of conditional cash transfers to low-income families to reward them for specific behaviors: attending school, attending doctor's appointments, working full-time, etc. The Bloomberg Administration, which launched the initiative as one of many anti-poverty programs managed collectively through its Center for Economic Opportunity, has renewed the program for a third year.
The program is both promising and controversial for providing what many deem paternalistic incentives that isolate behavior as the reason households are poor. I agree. But let's face it: Opportunity NYC is increasing annual household incomes by as much as 14% per year. Do we really want to condemn such a result?
Bush Years Lost Economic Decade
Published September 17, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
There's been a great deal of coverage of the latest census data on the increase in poverty in 2008. The bottom line? Bush stole all your money, and your health insurance is short-lived.
Fortunately, there's a growing push to modernize the poverty measure, which is based on 1955 data on the cost of food, calculated in haste in the 1960s. Back in the day, food costs were a third of a family's budget. Now they're one-seventh. Exactly - you don't even know how much that is, but it's relatively nominal compared to the expense of housing, medicine, clothing, etc.
Here's a quick round-up of coverage - the infuriating and the promising - you don't want to miss.
Housing Choice in Crisis
Published September 12, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
My organization, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC), recently released an audit report about discrimination against Housing Choice Voucher holders (“HCVP” or “Section 8”) in the Greater New Orleans rental market. Our study revealed that landlords refused to consider voucher holders as tenants 82% of the time. Preliminary results also suggest that, due to intentional discrimination and program dysfunction, voucher holders end up relegated to a small, isolated, and likely low-resourced segment of the rental housing market. This is particularly problematic, since one of the stated goals of the Housing Choice Voucher Program is to promote race and class integration.
Audits in other areas of the country have turned up similar findings and point to the need for serious reform in federal housing policy. We recommend 10 actions to make housing policy more inclusive, fair and effective.
Our study demonstrates that while 75% of landlord refusals were outright rejections, 7% of the time, landlords added additional terms and conditions for voucher holders that were tantamount to a denial.
40M Americans in Poverty
Published September 10, 2009 @ 11:42AM PT
The census results on poverty in the U.S. in 2008 are in, and they're worse than we thought. The lowlights:
- Median household income declined by 3.6%, to $50,303 from around $52K.
- The poverty rate rose to 13.2% from 12.5% in 2007. That's an additional 2M Americans who have fallen below the nation's already absurdly low poverty threshold to officially qualify as poor.
- Over 46M people - or 15.4% of the population - lack health insurance.
Of course, the specter of poverty hits some groups harder than others. Median incomes for Hispanics, Southern households, and foreign-born households declined by about 5%. If you were earning $10/hour, now you're earning $9.50 - this adds up to almost $1,000 in wages lost over a year for someone already struggling full-time at such a low wage.
Almost every group is worse off, including those with comparatively low rates of poverty: households headed by married couples; non-Hispanic whites; and working age adults.
Interestingly, the number of people with health insurance also grew - because more people are receiving coverage from the government. What's that now about a public option?
Finally, income inequality is unchanged (yippee?), but the poverty rate is the highest in 11 years. It's worth combing through all the data to really get a full picture of how many more Americans have become so poor even the government has officially taken notice - your neighbors, your grandmother, your kid's friends at school, perhaps even you.
Please help us get this info out today (#PDD09!) as part of Poverty Day. And you know the drill - Take Action to Fight Poverty in America now!
(Photo of a tent city in St. Petersburg, FL by Lboogiepeace)
