'Low-Income Families'
Your Chance to Influence Health Insurance Policy in Alaska
The issue of affordable health insurance has assumed national importance. Several states are developing innovative strategies to provide health insurance to their uninsured residents. Now it’s Alaska’s turn.
The Health Planning and Systems Development Unit within the Department of Health and Social Services, through a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, is holding a [...]
Innovative State Policies: How Would They Fare in Alaska?
Yes, it is an odd name–The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy–but the organization features some very innovative ideas. DMI describes itself in this way:
The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to challenging the tired orthodoxies of both the right and the left. The goal: progressive public policy [...]
New Study: Children Without Health Insurance in Alaska
Highlights of the new study by FamiliesUSA on Alaskan children without health insurance…
Reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is likely to be the most important health care issue addressed on Capitol Hill this year. The highly successful program, which started in 1997, provides health coverage to millions of low-income children with family [...]
How Are Alaska’s Children Doing?
UAA’s Institute for Social and Economic Research often produces good research upon which public policy decisions can be intelligently discussed and formulated. Perhaps my favorite which is routinely produced is the Kids Count Alaska Data Book. Despite the title, it is not just reams of statistical data. There actually is some discussion [...]
AARP Wages Campaign in Alaska to Help Lower Medicare Drug Prices
With the aid of 89,000 members, AARP is calling on U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens to stand with the overwhelming majority of Alaskans and vote to give Medicare the power to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices. Murkowski and Stevens are two of the few remaining Senators yet to publicly state their position [...]
Report Shows Alaska Leaves More Than $30 Million in Federal Food Assistance Unclaimed
On February 12, as part of the Alaska Food Coalition annual member meeting in Juneau, Food Bank of Alaska released a new report, “Empty Plates in the Greatland: Alaska Leaves Millions in Federal Food Assistance Unclaimed.â€
At a time when Alaska’s rates of hunger and food insecurity are rising, only 59 percent of Alaskans who are [...]
Minimum Wage FAQ (3 of 3)
How will people be helped if the minimum wage in Alaska was raised?
“In Alaska, the Fair Market Rent (FMR) for a two-bedroom apartment is $931 . In order to afford this level of rent and utilities, without paying more than 30% of income on housing, a household must earn $3,103 monthly or $37,235 annually. Assuming [...]
Minimum Wage FAQ (2 of 3)
What is inflation?
Inflation is the rising costs of products that serve to devalue the buying power of money. What this does over time is to cause minimum wages to actually be worth less, even though the amount stays the same. So this means that every year the nations poorest are getting even poorer when [...]