Long-term unemployment easing, as many accept lower pay, By Steve Matthews, September 10, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “James Ensley, of Rocky Face, Ga., took a $10,000-a-year job last month as a school bus driver after almost two years of unemployment benefits ran out. While that’s one-third of what he had made as a warehouse manager, the father of two says he’s content. ‘It feels great to go to work instead of having somebody tell you, ‘I can’t help you,'” said Ensley, 51, whose former employer went bankrupt in the housing slump. ‘I miss my old job, but it is not coming back so I have to get over it.’ A surge in long-term unemployment, which Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has cited as evidence of a ‘far from normal’ labor market, is abating. That’s good news for American companies, which are taking advantage of a pool of 5.2 million people whose career hardships have made them eager to return to work. Most of the re-employed have had to settle for reduced pay, allowing businesses to keep labor costs low while boosting profits amid sluggish sales gains after the deepest recession since the 1930s…”
Day: September 10, 2012
Young Adults and Health Insurance Coverage
More young adults have insurance after health care law, study says, By Sabrina Tavernise, September 10, 2012, New York Times: “The share of young adults without health insurance fell by one-sixth in 2011 from the previous year, the largest annual decline for any age group since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began collecting the data in 1997, according to a new report released on Monday. The estimates are drawn from a federal survey of about 35,000 households. It did not ask how the newly insured obtained coverage, but the study’s author, Matthew Broaddus, a research analyst at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the increased coverage for young people was almost certainly due to a provision in the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act that allows children to stay on their parents’ insurance policies until their 26th birthday…”
States and Medicaid Expansion – Montana, Illinois
- News analysis: Medicaid expansion answers hard to come by, By Mike Dennison, September 9, 2012, Helena Independent Record: “When Gov. Brian Schweitzer submits his farewell state budget in November, he’ll spell out how Montana should expand Medicaid in 2014 to provide health coverage for another 50,000 of our lower-income fellow citizens – or maybe not. Schweitzer, whose final term in office ends Dec. 31, isn’t saying whether he wants to expand Medicaid in Montana, as allowed and bankrolled by the federal health-reform law. In a recent interview, the Democratic governor said his administration wants to know the ground rules for the expansion, such as whether Montana can make some adjustments and still get federal financing…”
- Medicaid moratorium could hamper Illinois action on federal health law, By Doug Finke and Chris Wetterich, September 8, 2012, State Journal-Register: “Medicaid changes approved by Illinois lawmakers to rein in the skyrocketing cost of the program may have another effect. They could make it more difficult for the state to implement the federal Affordable Care Act. Along with sweeping changes to eligibility standards, rate reductions, program elimination and other cost-containment measures, lawmakers approved a four-year moratorium on expansion of Illinois’ Medicaid program. Coupled with the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, some lawmakers believe the General Assembly will have to suspend or repeal the moratorium if there is going to be an expansion of Medicaid rolls that results from the ACA…”