Milwaukee teen birthrate drops 50% in 7 years after city efforts, By Karen Herzog, October 23, 2013, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Milwaukee’s teen birthrate has dropped by 50% over the past seven years — surpassing by three years and 4 percentage points a goal set by one of the most ambitious teen pregnancy prevention initiatives in the nation, city officials announced Wednesday. The 2012 teen birthrate marks a historic low for the city: 25.76 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 17, down 50% from seven years prior, when the rate was 52 births per 1,000 females in that age group. The initiative grew out of concerns that children born to teen mothers are more likely to become teen parents themselves and are more likely to drop out of school, tap into public assistance or go to jail. The city and a group of community partners set a goal in 2008 to reduce Milwaukee’s teen births by 46% over 10 years (2006-’15), to 30 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 17…”
Day: October 24, 2013
Affordable Care Act
- Health Care Law Fails to Lower Prices for Rural Areas, By Reed Abelson, Katie Thomas, and Jo Craven McGinty, October 23, 2013, New York Times: “As technical failures bedevil the rollout of President Obama’s health care law, evidence is emerging that one of the program’s loftiest goals — to encourage competition among insurers in an effort to keep costs low — is falling short for many rural Americans. While competition is intense in many populous regions, rural areas and small towns have far fewer carriers offering plans in the law’s online exchanges. Those places, many of them poor, are being asked to choose from some of the highest-priced plans in the 34 states where the federal government is running the health insurance marketplaces, a review by The New York Times has found…”
- Obama team to clarify health care penalties, By David Jackson, October 24, 2013, USA Today: “The Obama administration is seeking to clarify penalty rules for people who delay signing up for coverage under the new health care law. Simply put: People who wait until the end of the initial enrollment period — March 31 — will not be penalized. The Obama administration is preparing legal guidance to address a confusion of dates in the law, which says people must sign up by the 15th of one month to receive coverage on the first of the next month…”