> RNR Home > RNR Help
|
June 14, 2005 IWPR’s Research News Reporter is distributed monthly to highlight inventive, informative, innovative, and sometimes controversial research relating to women and their families. Each selection includes a short description of the research and either a link to the report itself or a citation. We sometimes include short pieces in their entirety. In this edition:
1. Medicaid: A Critical Source of Support for Family Planning in the United States Rachel Benson Gold, Cory L. Richards, Usha R. Ranji, and Alina Salganicoff The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation April 2005 This issue brief finds that Medicaid is the single largest source of public funding for family planning services, providing six in ten of all public dollars spent on family planning in 2001. Moreover, according to the authors, in 2003, Medicaid provided health care for 7.1 million women (11.5 percent) of reproductive age and for 36.6 percent women of reproductive age in families with incomes below the federal poverty line. The issue brief attributes Medicaid’s success in providing family planning services largely to the special status family planning holds in the Medicaid program. Unlike other areas of health care, the federal government matches at 90 percent the cost of all family planning services and supplies. Medicaid beneficiaries do not incur any out-of-pocket costs when utilizing family planning services. Lastly, women have the freedom to choose their family planning providers, even if they are enrolled in managed care networks. http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=52879
2. Food Security Stability and Change Among Low-Income Urban Women Andrew S. London and Ellen K. Scott The Joint Center for Poverty Research May 19, 2005
The authors find that 25.3 percent of those in the survey sample who were food secure in 1998 were classified as food insecure in 2001. However, 43.7 percent of those classified as food insecure in 1998 were food secure in 2001. The paper cites several factors that affect food security, including the number of children under age 18 years in the household, a family’s income, and the physical and mental health status of family members. The qualitative analysis finds a strong relationship between depression and food insecurity. Although the authors determined that 72.7 percent of those scoring low on the depression scale were food secure in 2000 and 2001, only 21.4 percent scoring high on the depression scale were food secure in 2000 and 2001. In other words, nearly 80 percent of women who scored high on depression in 1999 remained food insecure in either 2000 or 2001. Based on these findings, the authors argue that mental and physical health problems are barriers to food security because such problems prevent women from engaging in activities necessary to food security, such as obtaining and maintaining good employment, maintaining social connections that would allow them to depend on others for aid, or pursuing public or community-based food resources. Working Paper: http://www.jcpr.org/wp/WPprofile.cfm?ID=415
3. Taxes and Marriage for Cohabiting Parents Elaine Maag The Urban Institute May 23, 2005 Using data from the 2002 National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF), the author analyzes the extent to which cohabiting parents face marriage penalties and bonuses under 2003 and 2008 tax laws. A marriage penalty occurs when a couple owes more tax after marriage than before marriage. Similarly, a marriage bonus occurs when a couple owes less tax after marriage than prior to marriage. Specifically, the author finds that under 2003 law, 50.7 percent of cohabiting couples with children would pay more in tax as a married couple, 42 percent would pay less, and 7.3 percent would experience no change. Under 2008 tax law, the author finds that 44.1 percent of cohabiting couples would pay more in tax if married, while 48.5 percent would pay less in tax. The article notes that partners with unequal incomes usually receive a marriage bonus, which is more typically found among low-income households. The author finds that under 2003 tax law, 63.3 percent of low-income households would receive a marriage bonus, a number that increases to 74.7 percent under 2008 law. According to the article, earned income tax credit (EITC) is by far the largest source of both penalties and bonuses for low-income families. http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=1000788
4. Social Security is Chief Factor in Improved Retirement Wealth Picture: Combined value of traditional pensions and 401(k)s stagnant from 1983 to 2001 for typical near-retirees Christian Weller and Edward N. Wolff Economic Policy Institute May 25, 2005 The authors find it is the growth of traditional Social Security- not private pensions, better saving, or the stock market- that has been the greatest contributor to improved retirement security between 1989 and 2001. The article reports Social Security to be the biggest single source of wealth for the average person nearing retirement. In fact, the report shows that people between the ages of 56 and 64, who head median-income households, have over four times as much Social Security wealth as private pension wealth to sustain them in retirement. For about two-thirds of the people over 65, the authors find that Social Security covers more than half of their incomes. The authors assert that the importance of Social Security benefits to retirement is even more profound for women and minorities who are likely to have less non-Social Security wealth to depend upon. Article: http://www.epinet.org/newsroom/releases/2005/05/200505-weller_wolff-nr.pdf Retirement Income: The Crucial Role of Social Security , a book by the authors: http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/book_retirement_income This edition of IWPR’s Research News Reporter was prepared by Teresa Yeh. |
Institute for Women's Policy Research
1707 L Street, NW, Suite 750 ~ Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202.785.5100 ~ Fax: 202.833.4362 ~ Email: iwpr@iwpr.org
© 2005 by IWPR