- Louisiana has sixth-highest income inequality in the nation, report finds, By Jeff Adelson, November 15, 2012, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Louisiana has the sixth-highest level of inequality in the United States, a problem that has worsened in recent years due to stagnating wages for the poorest residents coupled with increases by those with high incomes, according to a report on the gap between rich and poor residents released Thursday. The state has seen the gap between those two population segments grow since the 1970s, a trend also apparent in the rest of the country, according to the report…”
- Income inequality study finds gap widening in Indiana, By Maureen Groppe, November 14, 2012, Journal and Courier: “The gap between the richest and poorest Hoosier households grew faster than in all but five other states in recent years, a new report concludes. In the late 1990s, the income of the richest fifth of Hoosier households was about six times the income of the poorest fifth. By the mid-2000s, the rich made eight times as much, according to a report released today from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. Those think tanks focus on policies affecting low- and moderate-income families and on workers. The report also found that Indiana was one of seven states where the average income of the poorest households fell over the past three decades…”
Day: November 15, 2012
States and Medicaid Expansion – South Dakota, Alabama
- Governor still undecided on Medicaid expansion, By Lynn Taylor Rick, November 13, 2012, Rapid City Journal: “After first hoping the courts would strike it down and then that Mitt Romney would dismantle it, a top aide to Gov. Dennis Daugaard said Monday he isn’t sure if South Dakota will expand its Medicaid rolls under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The governor, however, remains steadfast in his decision not to operate a state-run health insurance exchange, according to Tony Venhuizen, director of policy and communication with the governor’s office. Both the expansion of Medicaid and the health insurance exchange are part of the president’s health care reform legislation that was signed into law in 2010…”
- Gov. Bentley says Alabama won’t set up exchange, expand Medicaid, By Kim Chandler, November 13, 2012, Birmingham News: “Bentley, in a show of continued resistance to the Affordable Care Act, said this afternoon that he will not set up a state health care exchange and he will not expand Medicaid under the federal healthcare overhaul. ‘I will not set up a state exchange in Alabama,’ Bentley said during a speech to the Birmingham Business Alliance. States have a Friday deadline to inform the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services if they plan to set up a state-run exchange, essentially a marketplace for people and businesses to shop for insurance. If states don’t set up their own exchange, either alone or in federal partnership, then the federal government will step in and design it…”
Child Poverty in the UK
Child poverty: Definition could include family breakdown, November 15, 2012, BBC News: “Family breakdown, drug addiction, debt and education results are among the factors that could be used to measure child poverty in future, ministers say. Recent figures showed fewer children in poverty – but largely because falling wages have narrowed the gap between the poorest and average earners. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith says this income-based method of measuring poverty is too simple. He is launching a consultation on how to include other factors. But Labour suggested that the government was trying to ‘distract attention’ from ‘rather bleak’ trends in child poverty data…”