Insuring Poor Children

A recent editorial in the Washington Post explained how the Bush administration has tried to preempt debate about federally sponsored health insurance for children. I include an excerpt:

States were told this month that they will no longer be allowed to enroll children whose families earn above 250 percent of the poverty level unless they can prove that they have managed to cover 95 percent of children below 200 percent of the poverty level and unless they require that children who previously had private health insurance wait a full year without coverage before enrolling in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The debate is a complicated one, since offering coverage for children in higher-earning families risks displacing existing private insurance. But for SCHIP the administration’s income cap is too strict, given variations in the cost of living and the price of health insurance. Its linked coverage target is too hard to reach — few states even come close. A year is too long a time for a child to go uninsured. And the administration’s way of implementing a major policy shift that would affect at least 19 states and the District of Columbia is too highhanded.

[…]

Evidence suggests that families enrolling their children in SCHIP aren’t doing so because it’s more convenient or cheaper than paying the cost of private insurance, but because it’s the only real option they have. The average monthly premium paid by employees for family coverage has risen from $135 in 2000 to $248 in 2006. Meanwhile, the share of companies offering health coverage has dropped — from 66 percent to 61 percent — and coverage is even scarcer at companies that employ a greater number of lower-paid workers.

As long as children go to school, we need to ensure they have access to healthcare as well as food, clothes, and shelter. Without education and those neccessities, the children will likely face poverty when they grow older. In fact, 50% of poor children in the United States remain in poverty their entire lives.

For those who worry about the cost of providing these social services to children, I respond with the suggestion that we use student loans. The student loans can include the costs of quality education, food, clothes, shelter, and healthcare. With a quality education, the child will later earn an income that will allow him or her to pay back the loans while supporting themselves.

For those that worry this will undermine private insurance, I suggest that the children get vouchers that allow them to select a private insurance company. I agree that state-run insurance will undermine the private insurance companies. However, if the state wants to help, I suggest they simply offer vouchers to poor children to buy insurance from private companies.

In the long run, it will cost us more to not insure poor children, because without complete insurance those children may not have the resources to escape poverty.

Linda Seger Posts about Poverty

In a recent blog on The Huffington Post, Linda Seger wrote about poverty in the United States.

I don’t like the partisanship of the article. I don’t like seeing this important issue dragged into the hell of bipolar politics.

Nonetheless, I like the way the author of the article personalizes poverty through a second-person narrative, in which she focuses on the working poor. The post really helps a person get into the minds of the working poor and feel their struggle.

Donate Your Mind, Not Your Money

Throwing money at the problem won’t work. In fact, it can make matters worse. Some major charities unwittingly undermine local markets by temporarily flooding them with low-priced goods. For example, by flooding a market with free or under-priced food, the local farmers and food sellers can’t compete and go out of business. Thus it goes with most charity.

We need to think of new ways to combat world hunger, poverty and homelessness. We have to come up with subtle ways to influence economic development without causing dependency.

Instead of donating your money to a charity (most of which will go to administrative costs), I ask you to share your thoughts. Please discuss these serious issues at the Hunger & Poverty Forums, and help us think up new ways to effectively combat hunger and poverty. It’s completely free! The forum URL follows:

http://millionsofmouths.com/forums/

Please join now!

West Bank Poverty Spawns Child Beggars

Laurie Copoans recently wrote an article about how West Bank poverty spawns child beggars. I include an excerpt:

Israel’s massive barrier of walls and fences separating it from the West Bank has made it harder for adult laborers to enter Israel, so families wracked by poverty are increasingly sending their children instead.

Children as young as 3 stand at traffic lights for hours, in rain or baking sun. They beg for change or sell cigarette lighters and batteries. At night, they sleep in fields, cemeteries, mosques, drainage canals or on streets. Their earnings are often taken by thieves or shady middlemen, and some are sexually abused or forced to sell drugs.

Unfortunately, children in the West Bank not only suffer from poverty, but they have to fear warfare. Quite commonly, Palestinian Children and families fall victim to bombs and missiles.

Both Israeli and Palestinian militaries often aim for civilian targets, and then tally the rest to collateral damage.

We need to end the war and the poverty, not just in the Middle East, but in the whole world.

Customers Have No Money

Shockingly, big companies like Walmart and Home Depot have announced low sales and financial losses. The reason? They say that their customers do not have enough money to spend. Inflation, high interest rates, and a failing housing market have taken away middle class America’s spending money, and may mark an oncoming economic recession; this in the USA, a country where 1 in 8 people already live in poverty.

A Future Without Homelessness

An August 8th Boston Globe editorial explored the idea of a future without homelessness. I include an excerpt:

WE DON’T have to study homelessness,” state Representative Byron Rushing says of a new state commission that he proposed to address the issue; good research is already available.

Instead, the commission has to answer two questions. What kind of housing do people need? And, what will it take to keep formerly homeless people housed?

If Massachusetts can find and pay for answers, it could end homelessness — for families, adults living on the streets, people leaving prison, and those with mental illnesses or addictions.

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A key piece involves creating a careful transition away from shelters and toward providing more supportive housing, which includes social services that could range from substance abuse programs to financial literacy classes. Shelter providers and other nonprofit organizations could help deliver these services, helping to ensure that people’s specific needs are met. And because formerly homeless people may have future problems — job losses, addiction relapses, or illnesses — there should be long-term outreach to prevent setbacks.

I agree with Byron Rusing that we already have enough information about homelessness. We now have a choice between using what we know to end homelessness or not. Basically, we can end homelessness by ensuring that the homeless get education, job training, and employment.

To avoid homelessness and live self-sufficiently, people need a stable job that pays for the costs of all contemporary human needs, including food, clothes, shelter, and healthcare. Additionally, the person needs to make enough to pay off their student loans and to secure retirement.

When getting education and job training, these people need access to food, clothes, shelter, and healthcare. We cannot forget healthcare, because these people cannot escape homelessness and poverty without treating their illnesses, including mental illness and addiction.

In regards to how to provide these services to homeless people, I suggest using student loans that cover not only schooling itself, but also food, clothes, shelter, healthcare, job training, and job placement. We cannot reasonably consider an education complete without those necessities, and thus student loans need to include them. By using student loans, we can end homelessness essentially for free, while also allowing homeless people to participate more fully in their own salvation, which emphasizes the self-sufficiency required to permanently escape homelessness and poverty.

If my plan interests you, please join my Hunger & Poverty Forums to discuss it with me further, which you can do for free. You can find the forums at the following URL:

http://millionsofmouths.com/forums/

I encourage constructive criticism, and welcome all opinions and viewpoints.