Benefits

This week at CBPP, we focused on health, the economy, food assistance, state budgets and taxes, housing, and family income support.

The Administration weakened federal standards for short-term plans, and it argues that they just represent a cheaper option for informed consumers who understand the risks. But as enrollment in these plans rises, they are leaving more people without comprehensive coverage.

To achieve an antiracist and inclusive economic recovery from COVID-19’s ravaging of jobs and state budgets, states must fill their revenue shortfalls in equitable ways while building a foundation to grow thriving, inclusive communities.

Low benefits in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program are rooted in historical racism, especially in the South, where cash assistance has been consistently weaker since policymakers created TANF’s predecessor nearly a century ago. The result is now a program that does not cover the basic needs of low-income families during times of joblessness, illness, or disability.

The number and share of Americans without health insurance coverage rose for the third straight year in 2019, recent American Community Survey (ACS) data show, despite three years of strong economic growth and falling unemployment. This follows six straight years of health coverage gains, with the uninsured rate falling from 15.5 percent in 2010 to a historic low of 8.6 percent in 2016 as the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) major coverage expansions took effect.

More than 4 in 10 children live in households that struggle to meet usual household expenses, our analysis of Census Bureau data released today finds. Along with other data showing that hardship has significantly worsened due to COVID-19 and the recession that it spurred, the figures underscore the need for policymakers to agree on a strong, bipartisan economic relief package.

The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion has helped narrow longstanding disparities in health coverage and access to care for people of color, and preliminary evidence suggests it is also improving their health outcomes. The 36 states (plus the District of Columbia) that have implemented expansion have made the greatest progress in increasing health coverage since the ACA’s major coverage provisions took effect in 2014, and these states have narrowed the gaps in uninsured rates between Black and Hispanic people and white people far more than states that haven’t expanded.

If the Trump Administration and a group of 18 states convince the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), its Medicaid expansion — which covers more than 12 million low-income adults across the country — would end along with the rest of the law.

The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion has extended health coverage to millions of women, and at least 2.2 million more uninsured women could gain coverage if the 14 states that haven’t yet implemented the expansion did so. That would improve coverage and access to care for people who have recently given birth, likely improving health outcomes, research shows.

The new federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, released yesterday by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), deviates in significant and disappointing ways from previous Obama and Trump Administration plans.

Sunday’s federal court decision striking down a Trump Administration rule that would have eliminated SNAP (food stamps) for 700,000 low-income jobless workers means that the punitive, ill-conceived rule — already temporarily suspended due to the pandemic — can’t take effect even when the public health emergency ends.

When parents have health insurance, their children are more likely to be insured, a highly credible recent study confirms. Medicaid coverage expansions for parents over the years, including the Affordable Care Act’s expansion, have translated into significant coverage gains for children.

Hospitals’ uncompensated health care costs, which fell significantly as the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) major coverage expansions took effect, rose slightly in 2017 but remained well below their 2013 level, according to the latest data from the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission — especially in states that adopted the ACA’s Medicaid expansion to low-income adults.

This week at CBPP, we focused on state budgets and taxes, family income support, poverty and inequality, and health.

Arizona voters will decide this fall whether to enact a targeted tax increase on high-income residents through Proposition 208 (the Invest in Education Initiative), which could deliver a sizable boost to the state’s finances, make its tax system fairer, provide big benefits to children and schools, and boost the state economy’s long-term potential.

Arizona voters on November 3 could take a giant step toward educational equity that would help every schoolchild in the state, with outsized benefits to kids of color and kids whose families have low incomes.

Now that New Jersey has repealed its “family cap” law that denied more cash assistance to families that have another child while enrolled in its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the 12 remaining states with these laws in their TANF programs should follow suit. The laws not only have racist and sexist roots but constitute bad policy, denying children the resources they need to thrive.

As states seek cost-saving options to address their substantial budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 economic crisis, they should consider ways to reduce prescription drug spending rather than cuts in benefits or provider reimbursement rates.

In a victory for fiscal policy and racial justice, California has repealed some county fees and eliminated the related unpaid debt. As other states consider how to respond to the COVID-19 recession in ways that dismantle racial and economic barriers, they should follow California’s action, which will permanently end 23 criminal legal fees, such as probation fees for public defenders, parole supervision fees, and local booking fees.

This week at CBPP, we focused on health, food assistance, state budgets and taxes, poverty and inequality, the economy, family income support, and Social Security.