The number of uninsured children increased by more than 400,000 to more than four million nationwide between 2016 and 2018, reversing a long-standing positive trend and erasing many of the gains achieved after major provisions of the Affordable Care Act took effect. Behind these numbers are millions of families struggling to make ends meet and get their kids the health care they need to succeed.
Archives: Voices
America’s foster care system: progress on many fronts, but still overburdened
An annual study of foster care in the United States reveals good news and bad news – and there are newly emerging threats, both at the state and federal level. The good news: for most of the 2010s, federal data showed the number of children in foster care steadily increasing after a previous decade of decline. The reason, in part, was the opioid crisis. Now, however, the number of children in foster care is declining, while the number of homes available to foster youth is on the rise.
The latest CHN Human Needs Report: Budget updates, Medicaid work requirements, low-income tax credits, and more
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on Congress’s work on spending bills, a judge’s ruling on immigration and health care, how Medicaid work requirements fared at the ballot box, efforts to expand low income tax credits, and more.
Rental Assistance Shortage Leaves 700,000 Veterans Homeless or Struggling to Afford Housing
As Veterans Day approaches, hundreds of thousands of veterans struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Some 38,000 veterans were homeless on a single night in January 2018, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates. Moreover, 666,000 veterans lived in low-income households that paid more than half of their income for rent and utilities in 2017, Census data show. Low-income people with such high housing costs — what HUD calls “severe cost burdens” — often must skimp on items like food or clothing to pay for rent and utilities. They also face a growing risk of utility cutoffs, eviction, and homelessness as bills pile up.
When fighting poverty, listen to the impoverished
Last month the United Nations invited Ashana Bullet and Eduardo Simas to speak at a conference entitled “Perspectives on Poverty.” Bullet and Simsas are both members of ATD Fourth World, an international non-profit organization dedicated to finding and eradicating the root causes of poverty. Bullet is a lifelong resident of New Orleans; Simas owns and manages a farm in rural Brazil. Their message: when fighting poverty, listen to the impoverished.
Moving Backward: Efforts to Strike Down the Affordable Care Act Put Millions of Women and Girls at Risk
The fate of the Affordable Care Act is once again at stake, pending a decision from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the health care repeal lawsuit known as Texas v. United States. Texas and 17 other states—with support from the Trump administration—are challenging the ACA’s constitutionality. If the court rules to strike down the entire ACA, there will be devastating consequences for everyone; but these negative outcomes will be most pronounced for the millions of women with preexisting conditions and, in particular, for women of color and women with low incomes, whose health and economic security would be most at risk.
Homelessness in Caricature: How Empathy Can Help Us to Understand Homelessness as both the Result and Cause of Crisis
In America, when we think of homeless people, we think of a man in tattered clothes, maybe with a sign, standing on a street corner or slumped beside a building. We think of shopping carts and dirty faces, people who sleep under overpasses. The reality is, there isn’t one stock image of a homeless person, one template that they all follow. These caricatures allow the general American public to feel that homelessness is not their problem, or not a worry they might ever face.
Coming to America: The Story of Rosalie
Rosalie was born and raised in a shantytown in the Philippines. From a young age she had her eyes set on attending nursing school, something that would equip her with the skills to escape poverty. Beating the odds, she struggled through nursing school, working her way through jobs in the Middle East. Eventually a Texas hospital would fulfill her dreams with a job offer in the United States. Rosalie’s story is documented in the recently published book A Good Provider is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century, written by Jason DeParle.
Nov. 6 Call-in Day: Tell Your Senators to Support Improving Low-Income Tax Credits
Right now, Congress is looking to add bipartisan tax legislation to the end-of-year budget package. It is imperative that if there is any tax legislation helping businesses and the rich that we also do what we can to help low-wage workers. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) help working families and individuals better provide for basic needs. On November 6th please call: 1-888-678-9475. Tell your senators: Any tax package that passes this year must include improvements to the low-income tax credits — the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit.
The latest CHN Human Needs Report: Spending updates, “public charge” rule blocked, Trump steps up attacks on food aid, and more
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on Congress’s work on spending bills, court rulings on President Trump’s “Public Charge” proposal, the Trump Administration’s escalation of attacks on nutrition assistance, and more.
With time running out, former Census Bureau Directors issue bipartisan call for full funding
Seven former Census Directors have penned a letter to House and Senate leaders as well as members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging that Congress enact the 2020 Census appropriation as soon as possible. The seven former Directors, representing both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations, warn that failure to act could result in disruptions in the preparation for, launching, and implementation of peak 2020 Census operations.
Protecting immigrant children: the last acts of a hero and civil rights icon
Hours before he died last week, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) performed what might have been his final official act while in office. According to CNN, aides to Cummings drove from the U.S. Capitol to Baltimore so that he could sign two subpoenas related to an investigation into the Trump Administration’s policy on whether seriously ill immigrants, including immigrant children, may remain in the U.S. for medical treatment.
“Chairman Cummings felt so strongly about the children, that he was going to fight until the end,” an aide explained.