’99ers’ dread future without jobless benefits, By Alana Semuels, April 30, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Karl Schafer says he has tried for hundreds of jobs since he was laid off from a truck factory more than two years ago. Still waiting to get hired, the 52-year-old Ohio man has suffered the indignity of applying for food stamps and asking his elderly mother for help. Weary of her own job search, former customer service representative Wagma Omar, 40, of Mission Viejo is thinking about applying for a dangerous civilian job in Afghanistan. And in California’s wine country, Kay Stephens, 56, is frantically looking to cut her living expenses so her unemployment doesn’t become a burden to her 30-year-old daughter. Schafer, Omar and Stephens are among the increasing number of unemployed Americans whose burdens just got heavier: They’ve exhausted their 99 weeks of jobless benefits and must now figure out how to get by on ever more meager resources…”
Month: April 2010
Child Poverty – Scotland
Quarter of children in Scotland in ‘persistent’ poverty, By Reevel Alderson, April 29, 2010, BBC News: “The Scottish government has been urged to change the way it tackles the problem of child poverty. A series of studies it has published reveals poverty may be more serious for many families than had been previously believed. Researchers with Growing Up in Scotland, who tracked the experiences of 8,000 families, said a quarter of children were ‘persistently poor’. They said government measures to deal with the problem needed to be targeted. Eradicating child poverty is a commitment of both the Westminster and Holyrood governments…”
States and Health Care Reform
- States decide on running new pools for insurance, By Robert Pear, April 29, 2010, New York Times: “The fight over the new health care law shifted Thursday to the states, as some governors claimed federal money to run a new insurance pool for people with serious medical problems, while officials in other states said they would not operate the program. Friday is the deadline for states to tell the Obama administration whether they want to run the high-risk insurance pool for uninsured people with pre-existing conditions, or whether they will leave the task to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services…”
- New Colorado law to help insure 67,500 more, By Jennifer Brown, April 29, 2010, Denver Post: “Colorado can afford to add about 67,500 people to Medicaid and other government insurance next week, thanks to a new state law that requires hospitals to chip in toward the landmark initiative. Hospitals made their initial payments – and in return, received more state and federal cash to take care of needy patients – this month. The amount each hospital paid was worked out through a complicated formula that left some hospitals in the hole and others millions of dollars ahead of where they were before the new law. The state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing released a list of hospital winners and losers at The Denver Post’s request…”