Study: Ky Medicaid expansion showing benefits, By Chris Kenning, February 13, 2015, Louisville Courier-Journal: “One year after it was enacted, Kentucky’s Medicaid expansion is benefiting patients and health care providers — and is expected to generate jobs and economic growth that will more than offset $1.1 billion in state costs through 2021, according to a state study released Thursday. The expansion, which enrolled 375,000 people in the health care program for the poor and disabled last year, is now projected to create 40,000 jobs and add $30 billion to the economy in the next six years — more than initially predicted…”
Day: February 13, 2015
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Republicans eye changes to food-stamp program, By Tennille Tracy, February 11, 2015, Wall Street Journal: “House Republicans are laying the groundwork for a revision of the food-stamps program after its sharp expansion during the recession. The effort kicks off Feb. 25 when the House Agriculture Committee holds the first of several hearings scheduled this year on food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…”
Jailing for Inability to Pay Bail
How bail punishes the poor for their poverty, By Max Ehrenfreund, February 13, 2015, Washington Post: “Most of the controversy over crime and punishment in the United States has focused on how many people are in prison. You don’t hear as much about jails, and yet for most Americans the local jail is where they’re likely to experience the justice system. Far more Americans go to jail in a given year than to prison, although most of them have not been convicted of any crime. Then there are those with mental illnesses who simply don’t have other options. And increasingly, jail has become a de facto punishment for poverty, as the poor are forced to remain there in lieu of bail while awaiting trial…”