Poverty

About 30 million people could experience a gap between monthly SNAP payments of more than 40 days. More than 4 million low-income households, including 8 million people, could experience a gap of more than 50 days.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved two Medicaid waivers for Arizona that will reduce coverage, make it harder for people to access affordable care, and increase financial hardship.

This week at CBPP, we focused on poverty and inequality as well as federal tax, health, and the economy.

The change would raise premiums for at least 7.3 million marketplace consumers by cutting their premium tax credits.

A recent Buckeye Institute report claiming that Medicaid work requirements would significantly increase beneficiaries’ work hours and lifetime earnings is based on flawed assumptions, misrepresents existing research, and ignores actual experience regarding Medicaid and work from states like Arkansas, Michigan, and Ohio. [1] Thus, its estimates are invalid.

Another 1,232 Arkansas Medicaid beneficiaries lost coverage on January 1 for not reporting at least 80 monthly hours of work or work-related activities for three months, bringing to 18,164 the number losing coverage since the state imposed its work requirement last June.

While Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is best known for his extraordinary, inspirational leadership in bringing down legal barriers to civil rights for African Americans and other people of color, he also emphasized the critical importance of reducing poverty and expanding opportunity in achieving true racial justice. In his last years, he placed increasing emphasis on poverty and opportunity, and his last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, published in 1967, outlined an agenda for economic justice.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) together boosted the incomes of 29.1 million Americans in 2017, lifting 8.9 million above the poverty line and making 20.2 million others less poor, our analysis of new Census data shows. These totals include 12.5 million children, 4.8 million of whom were lifted out of poverty and another 7.7 million made less poor. The figures use the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which — unlike the official poverty measure — accounts for the impact of taxes and non-cash benefits as well as cash income.

For the first weeks of 2019 at CBPP, we focused on the government shutdown, health, housing, federal taxes, and the economy.

Critics are raising sensible concerns about the policy as high-profile Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and real estate investors rush to profit from it.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of low-income seniors, people with disabilities, and families with children that receive federal rental assistance face severe hardship if the government shutdown extends into February and March.

Here’s why:

Taking coverage away from people who don’t meet a work requirement is at odds with Medicaid’s “central objective.”

Congressional leaders have a responsibility to step up and find a clear path toward a resolution.

Some seniors and people with disabilities receiving home- and community-based services (HCBS) could lose their Medicaid eligibility and have to go into nursing homes to get needed care, because the President and Congress haven’t extended “spousal impoverishment” protections that expired on December 31. The House is expected to consider legislation today to extend the protections for three months, and the Senate should follow suit and the President should sign it as soon as possible.

Millions of low-income households could have their basic food assistance cut back substantially in February and then virtually eliminated in March.

As the nation’s largest federal rental assistance program, Housing Choice Vouchers have the unique potential to help low-income families move to neighborhoods with low poverty, low crime, and good schools.

When implemented properly, housing vouchers can give low-income families real choices about where to live — including the chance to live in lower-poverty, higher-opportunity neighborhoods — and help public housing agencies meet their legal obligation to address housing discrimination and segregation.

This week at CBPP, we focused on food assistance, health, the federal budget and federal taxes, and the economy.

Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) federally run health insurance marketplace remained strong for 2019, new data show, indicating that the marketplace continues to offer affordable, qualify coverage that meets people’s needs. Overall, 8.5 million people enrolled in coverage compared to 8.8 million in 2018.