Health and Poverty Commentaries
"Teenage girls who become parents typically find their life course permanently altered [...] According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about a fourth of teen mothers go on welfare within three years of the child's birth. Children of teen parents have high prospects of growing up in poverty and repeating the cycle."
"The debates about pelvic politics over the last week sometimes had a patronizing tone, as if birth control amounted to a chivalrous handout to women of dubious morals. On the contrary, few areas have more impact on more people than birth control - and few are more central to efforts to chip away at poverty."
Posted December 19, 2011
"It’s time to think more broadly about where to find leverage for achieving a healthier society. One way would be to invest more heavily in social services. This may be difficult for many Americans to swallow as it suggests a potentially expanded role for government. Out of respect for individuals’ rights, our current social programs are mostly opt-in, leaving holes for the undocumented, uneducated and unemployed to slip through cracks and become acutely ill."
Posted December 8, 2011
Posted December 5, 2011
Posted December 5, 2011
Posted November 14, 2011
Posted November 7, 2011
Posted November 2, 2011
Posted October 11, 2011
"Almost all of those who participate in traditional Medicare, as opposed to managed-care plans, obtain supplemental coverage, either through their retirement packages (about 40 percent); from Medicaid in the case of low-income seniors (about 15 percent); or by purchasing private insurance policies known as Medigap (about 30 percent)."
"Poverty is spreading in America. The numbers are numbing: 46 million people in poverty, a record number, one out of every seven Americans. Nearly 50 million go without health insurance. There are fewer payroll jobs now than in 2000."
"Buying fried chicken from a restaurant is not a good recipe for stretching a budget, nor is it likely to help trim any fat from the obesity epidemic. And frankly, for as much research as I've done on the federal Food Assistance Program, I didn't realize food assistance could be used in any restaurants at all."
A new survey by the SCAN Foundation and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, however, finds that Californians are woefully underprepared for the cost of such services. The survey is a wake-up call to the public, as well as a warning sign to lawmakers who want to pull the plug preemptively on a new federal insurance program for long-term care.
"Further, the federal government will subsidize coverage for people up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. This means that, using today's rates, government will pay a portion of the health insurance for a family of four making nearly $90,000 a year..."
"Today 53 percent of family practice residents, 63 percent of pediatric residents and nearly 80 percent of obstetrics and gynecology residents are female. In the low-income areas that lack primary and prenatal care, there are more emergency room visits..."
"Six in ten women who get care from Title X consider it their usual source of health care, and for many it is their only source. Patients under the federal poverty level receive services at no cost to them..."
Posted May 9, 2011
"Will the party also back off cuts it supported to Medicaid, food stamps, Pell grants and Head Start? It should. But we suspect it won't because the low-income beneficiaries of those programs are not their usual supporters and don't vote in the same large numbers."
"Every woman regardless of age, ethnicity, race or marital status should ask themselves one question this Mother’s Day: Why is the Republican plan to solve the nation’s debt and deficit crisis going to push me closer to poverty in my older years?"
"But the story of Jane Mecom is a reminder that, especially for women, escaping poverty has always depended on the opportunity for an education and the ability to control the size of their families. The latest budget reduces financing for Planned Parenthood, for public education..."
"As Congress debates the budget, it must remember that the Great Recession wreaked havoc on the American middle class. But it must also focus on the plight of those who were poor even before the recession – and rendered nearly invisible by the economic crisis."
Posted April 18, 2011
"It would cut food stamps by $127 billion, or 20 percent, over the next 10 years, almost certainly increasing hunger among the poor. It would cut Pell grants for all 9.4 million student recipients next year, removing as many as one million of them from the program altogether. It would remove more than 100,000 low-income children from Head Start, and slash job-training programs for the unemployed desperate to learn new skills."
Next »