Poverty

To fund the investments that would help build a more equitable recovery, President Biden is expected to ask the wealthiest households to pay a fairer amount in federal taxes. With the nation’s income and wealth more and more concentrated at the top over the last several decades — including during COVID-19 and its economic fall-out — and the nation facing significant investment needs, policymakers should reconsider how the tax code treats the most well-off. The health and economic crises of the last year exposed glaring weaknesses in our economy and public policies that leave millions of people

Recent research from Louisiana underscores how Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could dramatically reduce uncompensated care costs — the cost of providing health care that goes unpaid by patients or insurers — for states that have not yet expanded. Those cuts in costs would mirror other states’ experiences after expanding Medicaid and would reverse the relatively flat trends in hospitals’ uncompensated care costs nationwide. Uncompensated care costs as a share of hospital operating expenses rose in 2018 by 0.1 percentage points according to a recent report from the

Beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Administration should make additional, permanent changes to make it easier for more people to enroll in coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides benefits broadly to low-income households that meet the program’s eligibility requirements, but its coverage of non-elderly adults not living with children at home is heavily restricted. With some exceptions, SNAP rules limit benefits for adults ages 18-49 who don’t live with minor children and aren’t disabled to just three months in any 36-month period when they are not employed or participating in a work or training program for at least 20 hours a week. Essentially, this is a time limit — which disproportionately affects people of

This week at CBPP, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, housing, health, food assistance, state budgets and taxes, and the economy. On the federal budget and taxes, Chuck Marr argued that the expanded Child Tax Credit must be permanent and monthly. Javier Balmaceda noted that the American Rescue Plan Act provides critical, permanent tax relief to Puerto Rico. Marr, Sam Washington, Samantha Jacoby, and David Reich described how rebuilding the IRS would reduce the tax gap and help replenish the nation’s depleted revenue base. On housing, Will Fischer, Sonya Acosta, and Erik Gartland

The Act extends the Child Tax Credit to families of all sizes in Puerto Rico and provides funding to substantially expand Puerto Rico’s local Earned Income Tax Credit.

Reports of people being denied coronavirus vaccines due to immigration status — when everyone is eligible for them, for free, as the Biden Administration has stressed — underscore the need for continued state outreach to providers and potential recipients to minimize barriers to getting vaccinated and help bring the pandemic to an end. Efforts underway in some states and localities provide a model for others. States can also tap available federal resources, including the American Rescue Plan’s, to ensure that vaccines are provided regardless of a person’s immigration or insurance status and to

Vouchers help more than 2 million low-income households afford decent, stable housing, usually by helping them rent a modest unit of their choice in the private market.

“Shell Reed’s 1-year-old needed diapers.” The first sentence of a recent Washington Post story highlights why the American Rescue Plan both expanded the Child Tax Credit to help families make ends meet and authorized that the benefit be paid monthly. The Child Tax Credit expansion in the Rescue Plan is temporary and policymakers should make both the expansion and the monthly delivery mechanism permanent this year in recovery legislation. Struggling families need to buy diapers, food, and school clothes for their kids and to pay rent throughout the year. A Child Tax Credit that the government

Some Missouri lawmakers, citing unfounded concerns about cost, are trying to derail the July 1 implementation of a constitutional amendment passed by voters last summer that will expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and provide coverage to approximately 275,000 Missourians. Estimates have consistently shown expansion will produce net savings in Missouri’s budget, and the savings will be even higher under the American Rescue Plan’s significant new financial incentive for states that newly expand Medicaid. Some critics of expansion in the state are arguing that voters didn’t

The recovery legislation that policymakers will soon consider provides a historic opportunity to build on the Affordable Care Act and create an equitable recovery where everyone has access to quality health care, no matter their history of incarceration. Investments in broadening access to quality health care for people leaving jail and prison — in addition to funding for subsidized employment and housing vouchers — can help avoid reincarceration and promote equity. The health needs of low-income people leaving jail and prison have long gone unmet, contributing to high death rates following

One of policymakers’ top priorities in recovery legislation should be to provide housing vouchers to a larger share of families in need.

A decade of budget cuts has severely undermined the agency’s ability to perform its fundamental jobs of enforcing the nation’s tax laws.

As state lawmakers continue to focus on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and recession, they should also commit to ensuring a more racially just future by making changes to their tax codes to address racial discrimination and income disparities. Most states worsen income inequality across racial groups by taxing Native American, Black, and Latinx families at higher rates than white families on average, according to a new report on taxes and racial equity from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Many local, state, and federal policy choices also contribute to racial and

Read in English La Ley del Plan de Rescate Estadounidense (en inglés The American Rescue Plan Act) incluye mil millones de financiación en asistencia nutricional para Puerto Rico y otros territorios que reciben subvenciones en bloque (en inglés block grants) de asistencia nutricional en lugar de participar en el Programa de Asistencia Nutricional Suplementaria (SNAP, por sus siglas en inglés y anteriormente conocido como “Programa para Cupones de Alimentos”). Tal financiación, junto a otras ayudas de nutrición implementadas el año pasado, le ayudarán a Puerto Rico a cubrir las necesidades

Leer en español The American Rescue Plan Act includes $1 billion in funding for nutrition assistance for Puerto Rico and other territories that receive block grants for nutrition assistance instead of SNAP (formerly known as food stamps). This funding, along with other temporary nutrition assistance enacted in the last year, will help Puerto Rico meet its residents’ food needs in the coming months as it recovers from the COVID-19 crisis. Over the longer term, policymakers should address the inequity between the nutrition assistance that Puerto Rico receives through a capped block grant and

This week at CBPP, we focused on health, the federal budget and taxes, food assistance, poverty and inequality, and the economy. On health, Sarah Lueck and Tara Straw reported how policymakers can build on the Affordable Care Act to expand health coverage and improve care affordability. Lueck also outlined how upcoming economic recovery legislation can help millions of people buy health insurance. Jennifer Wagner encouraged the Biden Administration to withdraw all approvals of Medicaid work requirements. Jesse Cross-Call explained that Medicaid expansion boosts health coverage and services for

This budget request marks an important break from more than a decade of underinvestment across a range of areas.

This budget request marks an important break from more than a decade of underinvestment across a range of areas.

Hardship rates fell sharply in late March, according to Census Bureau data released this week. But millions of people are still without their pre-pandemic income sources and are borrowing to get by. So while the latest figures are a welcome improvement, they show that many Americans will need more help to enable them to climb out of debt and to return the nation to pre-pandemic levels of hardship — let alone to reach a more equitable recovery that reduces hardship further. The share of adults whose household didn’t have enough to eat sometimes or often in the last seven days dropped to 8.8