Issue: Health

Better policy choices on taxes, transit can improve Alabamians’ health

By Chris Sanders

Deeper and smarter investments in education, housing, infrastructure and other vital services can eliminate barriers to good health for low-income residents and communities of color, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan policy research organization based in Washington, D.C.

Alabama can take many important policy steps to remove barriers to better health. These include:

  • Expand Medicaid to cover more than 340,000 adults with low incomes.
  • Provide state funding for public transportation to help seniors, people with disabilities, and people who can’t afford a car get to work or the doctor’s office and meet other basic needs.
  • End the state grocery tax to make it easier for families to make ends meet.
  • Modernize the state’s upside-down tax system to ensure Alabama raises enough money to invest in vital services and doesn’t tax struggling people deeper into poverty.

“Good health and good quality of life go hand in hand,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “By investing in Medicaid and public transportation and making our tax system more progressive, Alabama can build a stronger, healthier, more prosperous future for everyone.”

Income and wealth inequality, on top of centuries of structural racism, have taken their toll on health for black Alabamians. Black residents of our state die three years earlier than white residents, on average. Black babies in Alabama are twice as likely as white babies to be born with low birth weight, and they are twice as likely to die before their first birthdays.

Social, economic and environmental factors account for half of an individual’s health, the CBPP report says. That finding underscores the importance of investments in the common good.

“If Alabama really wants to improve the health of its residents, policymakers must prioritize education, housing, the environment, infrastructure, health programs and other public investments in their budgets,” CBPP senior policy analyst Jennifer Sullivan said.

Budget hearings show need for Alabama to expand Medicaid, boost public investments

By Chris Sanders

Alabama needs to expand Medicaid and invest more in education and other human services. Those were key takeaways from this week’s state budget hearings in Montgomery. The hearings highlighted a range of policy challenges and illustrated the connections between many of them.

We heard a lot of talk this week about the need to strengthen Alabama’s “infrastructure.” Many legislators say the state just doesn’t have enough money to make further investments in human infrastructure – the services like health care, child welfare and public safety that serve as a basic measure of what we value. But that’s incorrect.

Alabama’s lack of money for education, health care, child care and other services isn’t a natural force like the weather. It’s the result of decades of policy choices, as our Tax & Budget Handbook shows. And better choices can lead to better outcomes for Alabama.

Medicaid expansion could cut costs for corrections, DHR

Numerous agency leaders identified Alabama’s fraying rural health care system as a major concern. Rural hospital closures hurt communities and make it harder to get care. A lack of mental health care takes a toll on families, schools and workers. And both challenges increase financial strain on the corrections system.

The opioid epidemic is one problem that cuts across multiple areas: corrections, education, human resources, law enforcement, Medicaid, mental health and public health. Many parents fighting addiction lose child custody to the Department of Human Resources (DHR), which struggles to recruit foster parents for an average $16 daily allowance.

While bare-bones health agencies tackle the epidemic’s medical consequences, Alabama’s corrections system has emerged as the largest provider of mental health services, with many of them linked to substance use disorders.

That’s true even as Alabama’s prison overcrowding remains staggeringly high. The state prison system once operated at nearly double its designed capacity. Recent sentencing reforms helped cut that rate to 163 percent, and Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn expects it to sink to 145 percent. But further reductions are unlikely without broader changes, Dunn said.

Rural hospital closures affect prison overcrowding, too. Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, said a private prison in Perry County is vacant despite an appropriation to buy it. The county has no hospital, which would make it hard to use the prison even if the state bought it, Ward said.

Medicaid expansion would cut costs and improve lives across all these areas of concern. It would stem the tide of rural hospital closures. It would expand access to mental health and substance use treatment. And that would save many Alabamians from going to jail or losing child custody. Arise members and other advocates must keep making the case for Medicaid expansion throughout 2019.

Decades of inadequate funding cause unmet needs, staff shortages

Our state’s upside-down tax system requires most Alabamians to pay twice the share of income in state and local taxes that the richest households pay on average. It also means Alabama struggles to raise enough money to fund health care, child welfare and other important services.

Staff shortages were a running theme at this year’s budget hearings. Alabama’s corrections and mental health commissioners both emphasized problems with hiring and keeping qualified employees. DHR cited high turnover in child welfare staff, who are first on the scene when children’s safety is at risk. And the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) needs more state troopers to ensure highway safety.

DHR Commissioner Nancy Buckner asked lawmakers for an additional $21 million for 2020. Buckner said DHR struggles to retain staff, especially in the stressful child welfare division, which has 36 percent turnover. “Anything you can see on TV, we probably have multiple cases,” Buckner said.

The new money would allow for salary increases, technology improvements, and higher payments for foster families, Buckner said. Foster parents are difficult to recruit, she said, and the opioid epidemic has left more children in foster care.

For corrections, Dunn asked for another $42 million to hire and retain 500 prison guards and improve mental health services. (Low unemployment makes it harder to retain officers, Dunn said, because they often can earn more at safer jobs.) A federal judge has ordered Alabama to address its guard shortage and inadequate health services in state prisons.

ALEA Secretary Hal Taylor requested another $8.7 million to provide raises and hire 50 new state troopers. Up to 200 troopers could retire soon, Taylor said, and ALEA must compete with other departments for officers.

K-12 schools seek to hire more teachers, expand mental health support

Alabama schools discussed their needs for 2020 as well. State school Superintendent Eric Mackey requested an additional $295 million from the Education Trust Fund. With that money, schools could hire more teachers in grades 4-6 and invest more in the Alabama Reading Initiative. They also could hire more school nurses and provide a $600 allowance per teacher for classroom supplies.

Mackey asked for an extra $270 per student to teach about 25,000 students for whom English is a second language. And he requested another $22 million for school safety improvements and school-based mental health services.

Mackey echoed other agency heads by raising concerns about future personnel shortages. A recent survey of high school seniors found only 4 percent want to become teachers, down from 12 percent in previous surveys, Mackey said.

Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, asked Mackey to address the state Department of Education’s listing of 76 schools as “failing.” Most of those schools are in low-income areas and serve mostly black students. Mackey said the Alabama Accountability Act requires him to designate the lowest performing 6 percent of schools as “failing,” no matter how well they may educate students. The Accountability Act, enacted mere hours after introduction in 2013, diverts tens of millions of dollars a year from public schools to private school scholarship funds.

ALL Kids, pre-K, SNAP offer models for success

The budget hearings painted a stark picture of Alabama’s challenges, but they brought good news, too. Lawmakers heard numerous examples of how investments in health care and education are paying off.

Alabama’s rate of uninsured children is among the South’s best, and ALL Kids is a big reason why. The program provides health coverage for children whose low- and middle-income households don’t qualify for Medicaid. ALL Kids was the country’s first Children’s Health Insurance Program, and it remains a national performance leader in children’s health coverage.

The Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) provides an exemplary community-based long-term care option for residents of Mobile and Baldwin counties. The state’s commitment to pre-kindergarten has created a model for early childhood education. And aggressive workforce training programs in K-12 and two-year colleges are boosting Alabama’s economic potential.

Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar highlighted investments in long-term care reform and primary care reform. The statewide Integrated Care Network (ICN) has already launched its case management system, designed to steer more long-term care patients into home- and community-based services. On the primary care side, Alabama Coordinated Health Networks (ACHNs) will launch in seven regions this fall. That move will bring Medicaid decision-making closer to communities and emphasize preventive and coordinated care.

Buckner thanked DHR’s Food Assistance Division for ensuring Alabamians received benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the recent federal government shutdown. Facing a Jan. 20 deadline to distribute February benefits, employees worked nights and weekends to approve 1,700 SNAP applications.

Buckner also praised the Food Assistance Division for earning federal bonuses of $2.4 million for timely processing of applications and low error rates in benefit calculations. Unfortunately for Alabama, which has a highly efficient and accurate SNAP program, Congress ended future bonuses in the 2018 Farm Bill.

It’s time to invest in a brighter future

Successful investments like these aren’t “one and done.” Alabama must resume providing some state money for ALL Kids next year as full federal funding ends. PACE seeks to expand, but its requests have been rejected so far. Only one-third of Alabama’s 4-year-olds are enrolled in pre-K. And gearing up for the 21st century will require even bolder workforce development.

Treading water is not enough. Education, Medicaid and other vital services need more funding so they can do more than the bare minimum. Smart investments in these services will pay off in a stronger, healthier future for all Alabamians.

Policy director Jim Carnes, policy analyst Carol Gundlach and communications director Chris Sanders contributed to this post.

Alabama should expand Medicaid to continue gains in children’s health coverage, new national report indicates

By Chris Sanders

Alabama still has one of the lowest rates of uninsured children in the country, but its progress on that measure stalled in 2017, according to a report released Thursday by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families (CCF).

The state’s uninsured rate for children (3.1 percent) remained below the national average (5 percent) in 2017. But after years of improvement, Alabama’s number of uninsured children under 19 ticked up from 32,000 in 2016 to 36,000 in 2017. While the increase was not statistically significant, it is a warning sign that Alabama could slip backward in children’s health care if policymakers do not protect and expand coverage, Alabama Arise policy director Jim Carnes said.

“Alabama’s rate of uninsured children has improved from 20 percent to just 3.1 percent in the last two decades, and CHIP and Medicaid have played big roles in that success,” Carnes said. “Our state should build on those gains by expanding Medicaid to cover uninsured adults. Medicaid expansion would boost financial security for struggling parents and increase the odds that their children get and stay insured. It would be a win for children, a win for families and a win for Alabama.”

Congress’ delay last year in renewing federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was a driver of the uptick in Alabama’s number of uninsured kids, the Georgetown CCF study says. CHIP covers about 171,000 Alabama children living in families with low or moderate incomes, including more than 84,000 on ALL Kids. Congressional efforts to cap and cut Medicaid and undermine the Affordable Care Act also likely contributed to the increase, the report finds.

Medicaid work requirement hurts struggling families

By Alabama Arise

Alabama Medicaid is trying to take health coverage away from our state’s poorest parents struggling to make ends meet. Gov. Kay Ivey has to get federal permission to make this harmful change. Here’s why that shouldn’t happen:

The work requirement creates a no-win, catch-22 situation.

  • It targets 75,000 of the poorest Alabamians.
  • It’s a trap: They lose coverage if they don’t work AND if they do.
  • Without Medicaid expansion, it’s a work

The work requirement hurts families and children.

  • It targets people who are already working at home, taking care of children.
  • It ignores the shortage of affordable child care and public transportation.
  • Taking away parents’ health coverage will put their children’s health at risk.

The work requirement hurts the state budget.

  • Keeping track of who’s working, who’s looking for work, who’s not working and who’s exempt is hard and expensive. Those extra administrative costs will threaten other services like mental health and child protection.
  • If the state expands child care to help the new working parents, as it should, that’s another big cost to the state.
  • The plan does not show total state costs – which taxpayers deserve to know.

The work requirement goes against the mission of Medicaid.

  • Congress set up Medicaid in 1965 to provide health coverage for people with low incomes and medical need.
  • Cutting off health coverage in the name of promoting work violates Medicaid’s core purpose.

It’s vital to keep up the drumbeat of opposition. Alabama Medicaid got more than 800 public comments in Round 1 and more than 650 in a surprise Round 2. Next comes Round 3, the crucial federal comment period. Stay tuned for details!

Proposed Alabama Medicaid changes are ‘a catch-22 that forces people into the coverage gap,’ Alabama Arise tells officials

By Alabama Arise

Alabama’s proposed new Medicaid work requirement waiver would be costly, counterproductive, ineffective and harmful to thousands of families who live in deep poverty, Alabama Arise wrote in official comments submitted to state Medicaid officials on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018.

“Threatening loss of health care in an attempt to force work efforts, without providing the supports that would make those work attempts successful, is flagrantly cruel and will result in no outcome other than poorer, more desperate and less healthy Alabama families,” Arise’s comments concluded.

Medicaid covers about 1 million Alabamians. Of that total, the waiver would target 7.5 percent of them – about 75,000 adults with extremely low incomes who qualify for Medicaid as parents or other caretaker relatives of children. Alabamians in this group are ineligible for Medicaid if their incomes exceed 18 percent of the federal poverty level (about $312 a month for a family of three).

Because Alabama has not expanded Medicaid to cover adults with incomes below the poverty level, the state’s work requirement plan would create a “work penalty, a catch-22 that forces people into the coverage gap,” Arise wrote. About 300,000 Alabamians already are caught in the coverage gap, earning too much for Medicaid but too little to qualify for federal subsidies for Marketplace plans.

Parents who work just 10 hours a week at minimum wage earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. But the state’s proposal would require them to engage in work-related activities between 20 to 35 hours a week. That would leave thousands of Alabama parents in a no-win situation: They would lose their Medicaid coverage if they don’t work – and also if they do. Of the parents who would not qualify for an exemption – about 1.7 percent of Alabama’s total Medicaid population, by the state’s estimates – virtually all of them would end up uninsured, without access to employer-provided coverage or an affordable private plan.

Alabama’s proposal does not project the state’s cost to track Medicaid enrollees’ work activities and exemptions. It also does not identify whether or how the state would invest in child care, job training, transportation and other supports that low-income parents need to get and keep work.

High uninsured rates plague Alabama’s rural areas, show need to expand Medicaid

By Chris Sanders

Alabama’s small towns and rural areas have among the highest rates of uninsured low-income adult citizens in the country, and residents there are more likely to be uninsured than those in metro areas, according to a new report released Sept. 25, 2018, by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families (CCF) and the University of North Carolina’s NC Rural Health Research Program.

The uninsured rate for Alabama adults with low incomes is 36 percent in rural communities and small towns, and 29 percent in metro areas. Both rates are much higher than the national averages of 26 percent for rural areas and 18 percent for metro areas. Even in states that have not expanded Medicaid to cover adults with low wages, those rates have declined on average over the last decade.

But that progress has not reached many parts of Alabama, where the uninsured rate for low-income adults in rural areas and small towns was virtually unchanged between 2008-09 and 2015-16, the report found. And the Medicaid “work requirement” plan that Alabama has submitted for federal approval would drive the uninsured rate even higher by stripping Medicaid coverage from thousands of parents in poverty. Virtually all of those parents would be left with no realistic alternative for affordable coverage.

“Not only has Alabama failed to move forward on health coverage, but now our state is seeking to move backward by leaving even more people uninsured,” Alabama Arise policy director Jim Carnes said. “Alabama should drop its cruel efforts to punish people living in poverty and focus instead on expanding Medicaid so all Alabamians can get the care they need to become and stay healthy. Medicaid expansion would save hundreds of lives, create thousands of jobs and keep rural hospitals and clinics open to serve residents across our state.”

States that expanded Medicaid saw more than three times as large a decline in the uninsured rates for low-income adults living in rural areas and small towns than non-expansion states experienced between 2008-09 and 2015-16, the report found. Nationally, the uninsured rate for low-income adults fell by more than half – from 35 percent to 16 percent – in rural areas and small towns in states that expanded Medicaid. For states that have not expanded, the decline was much smaller: from 38 percent to 32 percent.

“Medicaid expansion would reduce the uninsured rate for residents across the entire state; however, the most dramatic improvement likely would be felt in small towns and rural areas of Alabama,” Georgetown CCF executive director Joan Alker said. “Improved coverage rates typically translate to a more stable health care system and help rural areas and small towns maintain availability of health care providers in areas where shortages are all too common. Access to rural health providers is especially important to women of child-bearing age and those with chronic conditions like asthma.”

In Alabama and elsewhere, jobs tend to be scarcer in rural areas and small towns, meaning fewer people have health insurance through their employers. And many of the jobs available in these communities – like farming and small businesses – are less likely to come with health benefits. Ten of the 11 Alabama counties with the highest unemployment rates in July 2018 were rural counties.

Alabama’s persistently high rate of uninsured adults shows the need for Medicaid expansion

By Chris Sanders

New U.S. Census data show that the share of uninsured Alabamians increased between 2016 and 2017 and remained higher than the national average. Alabama Arise policy director Jim Carnes issued the following statement in response on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018:

“The White House’s efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act and Alabama’s refusal to expand Medicaid are making life worse for hundreds of thousands of people across our state. These bad policy choices are serving as barriers separating people from affordable health coverage.

“Alabama’s steady gains in health insurance coverage since 2013 took a turn for the worse last year, this week’s new Census data show. The share of Alabamians without health insurance coverage rose to 9.4 percent in 2017, up from 9.1 percent the previous year and above the national average of 8.8 percent. These are trends in the wrong direction, and they’re the result of intentional policy choices.

“The Trump administration eroded ACA coverage by slashing funding for federal outreach and advertising to promote open enrollment for Marketplace coverage. In Congress, repeated attempts to repeal the ACA created public confusion over the status of the law. And in Alabama, the state’s ongoing refusal to expand Medicaid has left about 300,000 people trapped in a coverage gap, making too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to receive subsidies for Marketplace plans.

“It’s time to stop undermining health coverage and start investing in it. The White House should stop attacking the ACA. Congress should shore up funding for Marketplace outreach and enrollment assistance. And Gov. Kay Ivey should expand Medicaid to save our rural hospitals, create thousands of jobs and make Alabama healthier.”

Medicaid expansion, end to grocery tax highlight Alabama Arise’s 2019 priorities

By Chris Sanders

Medicaid expansion and legislation to end the state sales tax on groceries are among the top goals on Alabama Arise’s 2019 legislative agenda. More than 200 Arise members picked the organization’s issue priorities at its annual meeting Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, in Montgomery. The seven issues chosen were:

  • Tax reform, including untaxing groceries and closing corporate income tax loopholes.
  • Adequate funding for vital services like education, health care and child care, including approval of new tax revenue to protect and expand Medicaid.
  • State funding for the newly created Public Transportation Trust Fund.
  • Consumer protections to limit high-interest payday loans and auto title loans in Alabama.
  • Legislation to establish automatic universal voter registration in Alabama.
  • Reforms to Alabama’s criminal justice debt policies, including changes related to cash bail and civil asset forfeiture.
  • Reforms to Alabama’s death penalty system, including a moratorium on executions.

“Public policy barriers block the path to real opportunity and justice for far too many Alabamians,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “We’re excited to unveil our 2019 blueprint to build a more just, inclusive state and make it easier for all families to make ends meet.”

Alabama’s failure to expand Medicaid to cover adults with low wages has trapped about 300,000 people in a coverage gap, making too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to receive subsidies for Marketplace coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Expanding Medicaid would save hundreds of lives, create thousands of jobs and pump hundreds of millions of dollars a year into Alabama’s economy. Expansion also would help keep rural hospitals and clinics open across the state.

The state grocery tax is another harmful policy choice that works against Alabamians’ efforts to get ahead. Alabama is one of only three states with no sales tax break on groceries. (Mississippi and South Dakota are the others.) The grocery tax essentially acts as a tax on survival, adding hundreds of dollars a year to the cost of a basic necessity of life. The tax also is a key driver of Alabama’s upside-down tax system, which on average forces families with low and moderate incomes to pay twice as much of what they make in state and local taxes as the richest Alabamians do.

Alabama’s costly catch-22 Medicaid waiver plan would punish parents in poverty

By Chris Sanders

Arise Citizens’ Policy Project policy director Jim Carnes issued the following statement Monday, July 2, 2018, in response to Alabama Medicaid’s submission of a “work requirement” proposal for federal approval:

“Alabama Medicaid’s work requirement proposal would create a no-win situation for thousands of parents living in deep poverty. They’ll lose health coverage if they don’t get a job – and if they do.

“This proposal is a catch-22. Because Alabama hasn’t expanded Medicaid, a mother with two kids is ineligible if she works just 10 hours a week at minimum wage. If she met the proposed work requirement, she would earn too much for Medicaid, but not nearly enough to afford private coverage. When parents lose their insurance, children are less likely to have regular doctor visits and more likely to become uninsured themselves.

“On the same day Alabama submitted its proposal, a federal court struck down Kentucky’s plan to impose a work requirement and other restrictions on people covered by Medicaid expansion. That ruling, against a state with a much more generous Medicaid program than Alabama’s, highlights our state’s risk of a similar costly lawsuit.

“Any way you look at it, this proposal is nothing more than an expensive plan for denying health coverage to parents in deep poverty. Instead of punishing struggling families, our leaders need a vision for a healthier Alabama. We urge Gov. Ivey to save tax dollars, cut red tape and save lives by withdrawing this misguided plan.”

Proposed CHIP cut would hurt Alabama’s working families

By Chris Sanders

Arise Citizens’ Policy Project policy director Jim Carnes issued the following statement Wednesday, May 9, 2018, in response to President Trump’s proposal to cut $7 billion from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP):

“The last thing Alabama parents need is yet more uncertainty about their children’s health coverage. But just four months after Congress reached an agreement on long-term CHIP funding, President Trump is seeking to go back on the deal by cutting $7 billion from the program. Violating this year’s bipartisan agreement would sound an alarm not just for CHIP but for the prospect of meaningful action on any other vital issues facing Congress in the future.

“This proposed cut would undermine CHIP, which provides health coverage for 173,000 Alabama children, including 85,000 on ALL Kids. The cut would do major damage to a rainy day account that protects CHIP against unexpected enrollment increases caused by economic downturns or natural disasters. It also could set the stage for lower federal support for CHIP in the future.

“Alabama knows all too well how suddenly calamities can occur, and it’s essential to ensure CHIP can afford to cover all the kids who need it. Millions of American families, including tens of thousands across Alabama, already endured months of uncertainty after Congress let CHIP funding expire before approving a 10-year extension. These hard-working parents deserve to know those worries are behind them.

“Early statements from the administration have sent mixed messages about what effect the cuts will have. But no matter how you slice it, a $7 billion reduction in CHIP funding would be bad news for children’s health coverage. Alabama’s members of Congress should protect children and working families by rejecting this harmful cut.”