Editorial: No excuses. Lawmakers have budget to fund education, health care for Texans in need
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (center) delivers a speech while his wife, Cecilia (left) and newly elected Speaker of the House Dade Phelan (on right), join him during the convening of the 87th Texas Legislature in Austin on Jan. 12, 2021.Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer
One of life’s small pleasures is to peer into your pocketbook or wallet and discover that what you thought was a dollar bill lurking in the folds is actually a 20. As the 87th session of the Texas Legislature convenes this week, lawmakers are experiencing something of a macroeconomic equivalent. Despite the fiscal perils of the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s budget outlook is better than officials thought it might be, state Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced Monday.
Democrats eye tax on insurers to fund broader health reform package
Cars queue for Covid-19 testing at Hartford Hospital’s drive-through sampling site on Hudson Street.
Tapping into frustrations over the rising cost of health coverage and a lack of access to care, Democratic lawmakers in Connecticut are planning a package of reforms aimed at reducing expenses for people who buy their health insurance through the state’s exchange and making coverage more affordable for small businesses.
At the center of the proposal is a plan to revive the Health Insurance Providers Fee, more commonly known as the Health Insurance Tax – a tax on carriers created under the Affordable Care Act to help fund federal and state marketplace exchanges. Congress repealed the federal tax on insurers in 2019; the rollback is effective this month.
(StatePoint) Each year, millions of Americans get sick from “seasonal influenza” (“the flu”). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 38 million people got sick
Improving the Lives and Rights of LGBTQ People in America
A Road Map for the Biden Administration Getty/Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle
LGBTQ rights supporters gather during a candlelight vigil in West Reading, Pennsylvania, on September 14, 2020.
Adam Peck
Introduction and summary
The Trump administration spent the majority of its four years in office launching a barrage of attacks infringing on the rights of LGBTQ people, promoting discriminatory policies, and creating barriers to access critical government services. These actions reflect the Trump administration’s blatant disregard for the rights, dignity, and well-being of LGBTQ people, their families, and communities. In particular, the damages promulgated by the administration exacerbated existing inequalities and disparities between LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ people in the realms of health, employment, the justice system and law enforcement interactions, education, housing, and immigration. The real-world consequen
The Basic Facts About Children in Poverty Getty/Gregory Rec
A boy holds his little brother s hand after picking him up at the bus stop in Biddeford, Maine, April 2020.
Julia Cusick
For more on this topic, see The Basic Facts About Women in Poverty
Women, especially women of color, in the United States are more likely to live in poverty than men, and they need robust, targeted solutions to ensure their long-term economic security. Read
Introduction and summary
In America, nearly 11 million children are poor. That’s 1 in 7 kids, who make up almost one-third of all people living in poverty in this country. This number should be unimaginable in one of the world’s wealthiest countries, and yet child poverty has remained stubbornly high for decades Across the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is made up of 37 countries including Denmark, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the United States is consistently rank