Medicaid’s future tied to court decision on health-care reform, By Phil Galewitz, June 19, 2012, Washington Post: “The future of the nation’s largest health insurance program – Medicaid – hangs in the balance of the Supreme Court’s decision on the 2010 health-care reform law. The state-federal program that covers 60 million poor and disabled people would be greatly expanded under the health-care reform law, adding 17 million people starting in 2014. But if the entire law is struck down, states for the first time since 2009 would be free to tighten eligibility and make it more difficult for people to apply. The law had barred such changes. And under another scenario – if the justices declare unconstitutional just the law’s expansion of Medicaid – the entire program enacted in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society agenda could be threatened, health experts say…”
Day: June 21, 2012
African-American Unemployment – New York City
Blacks Miss Out as Jobs Rebound in New York City, By Patrick McGeehan, June 20, 2012, New York Times: “For months now, New York officials have been highlighting how the city has regained all the jobs lost during the long recession and then some. But by several measures, the city’s recovery has left black New Yorkers behind. More than half of all of African-Americans and other non-Hispanic blacks in the city who were old enough to work had no job at all this year, according to an analysis of employment data compiled by the federal Labor Department. And when black New Yorkers lose their jobs, they spend a full year, on average, trying to find new jobs — far longer than New Yorkers of other races. . .”
Payday Lending
Regions, Courting the Underbanked, Defends Payday Loans, By Maria Aspan, June 18, 2012, American Banker: “For banks trying to serve more low-income customers, Regions Financial (RF) could become both a shining example and a cautionary tale. The Birmingham, Ala., bank has spent the past year trying to attract the poor, the young, immigrants and other types of customers whom most banks have long ignored. It has rolled out check-cashing services, prepaid cards and payday loans, and it is expanding those services; last week, a senior executive announced plans to offer prepaid cardholders savings accounts with matching fund contributions and check-imaging technology for faster deposits. As Regions actively courts the long-ignored underbanked population, it has faced both praise and criticism. Wells Fargo (WFC) and a handful of other banks also offer such products, and Regions’ new “Now Banking” services are pretty familiar to anyone who has ever walked into a Western Union (WU) or a payday lender office. . .”