- Uninsured find more success via health exchanges run by states, By Robert Pear and Abby Goodnough, October 8, 2013, New York Times: “Robyn J. Skrebes of Minneapolis said she was able to sign up for health insurance in about two hours on Monday using the Web site of the state-run insurance exchange in Minnesota, known as MNsure. Ms. Skrebes, who is 32 and uninsured, said she had selected a policy costing $179 a month, before tax credit subsidies, and also had obtained Medicaid coverage for her 2-year-old daughter, Emma…”
- Oregon’s low-income health plan primed for growth under reform law, By Nick Budnick, October 3, 2013, The Oregonian: “Bruce Lovan makes no bones about it, he’s a member of the working poor. He sleeps on a mattress on the living room floor of his father’s La Grande duplex and lives on food stamps while pulling a couple of graveyard shifts a week as a $9-an-hour security guard. He’s also one of more than 200,000 low-income Oregonians who will newly qualify for the Oregon Health Plan starting in January, as its waiting list and lottery to enroll become a thing of the past…”
- One Maine family’s struggle for health care, By Sandy Butler and Luisa Deprez, September 27, 2013, Bangor Daily News: “The Daniels-Perez family is, like many Maine families, struggling to make do despite full-time employment. Samarali ‘Sam’ Daniels, her husband Ramon Perez, and their two children, Hector, 5, and Marrianna, 3, live in Augusta. Ramon works 40 hours a week at Sam’s Club, walks two miles to and from his job every day, as they do not own a car, and makes about $11 per hour. That’s more than the state minimum wage of $7.50 but far less than the $17.15 calculated by the Maine Department of Labor in 2010 as a livable wage for a family of four…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty