With 800,000 Floridians in Health Insurance Limbo, Hopes Return for Medicaid...
A coalition of businesses groups, local officials and healthcare industry representatives has rolled out a plan to insure nearly one million low-income Floridians who fall in the so-called Medicaid...
View ArticleMore States Lean Toward Medicaid Expansion, But Florida Remains a Holdout
The biggest nonexpansion states are Florida and Texas, where expansion would add a total of 2.6 million uninsured residents to the Medicaid rolls. But both the Florida and Texas legislatures are...
View ArticleEmergency Grants of Up to $600 Available to Flagler Seniors For Home Energy...
Eligibility is determined by income (gross household income must be below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines), and at least one member of the household must be at least 60 years old. The...
View ArticlePlan to Extend Health Insurance to 800,000 Poor Floridians Crawls Against...
The new Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange Program, or FHIX, would assist Floridians not eligible for Medicaid in purchasing health benefits coverage and gaining access to health services....
View ArticleGuilty of Being Poor: Across the Nation, Courts Shake Down the Destitute
From fines targeting the poor to civil asset forfeiture, courts have mounted odious means of seizing cash and property from people not charged with any crime and who can’t afford legal defense. The...
View ArticleRev. Beth Gardner, Leading Voice For Flagler’s Homeless, Is Leaving Bunnell’s...
Rev. Gardner, who will lead a parish in Lakeland starting in July, transformed the church into the county's most progressive advocate for the homeless, housing a cold-weather shelter and keeping...
View ArticleHouse and Senate Far Apart on Budget as Health Care For Poor Becomes...
The Florida House had made a significant concession to the Senate on hospital funding --- but said it would only follow through if the upper chamber dropped insistence on using Medicaid expansion...
View ArticleAdministrator Patrick Johnson Calls It Quits as Flagler Health Department...
Flagler County Health Department Administrator Patrick Johnson is resigning at the end of the month to take a public health post in North Carolina as county departments in Florida see their roles shift...
View ArticleCapitalism Doesn’t Cause Poverty. Its Absence Does.
The world’s poorest countries are not characterized by naive trust in capitalism, but by utter distrust, which leads to heavy government intervention and regulation of business. Under such conditions,...
View ArticleWhy You’re Getting Poorer: iPhones Aren’t The Economic Engine Cars and...
Robert Gordon argues rising standards of living brought by cars, indoor plumbing and electricity can;t be replaced by iPhones and the internet. Martin Feldstein disagrees. The post Why You’re Getting...
View Article8.8 Million More People Got Health Insurance Last Year, Largely Due to Obamacare
The increase, due to the Affordable Care Act, is unprecedented since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid 50 years ago. Expanding Medicaid--as Florida did not--would have added to the ranks of the...
View Article2.8 Million Floridians Still Uninsured Even as Just 20% Fall in Medicaid Gap
It's 1.1 million fewer than in 2013, but almost a third of the uninsured are eligible for Obamacare but haven't enrolled, 15% have chosen not to enroll in employee-provided health care, and the rest...
View ArticleThe Future Is Here: Florida Wants Welfare For the Rich While Punishing the Poor
Four years ago Chris Timmons, now a columnist and fellow at a Florida think tank, lost his job and needed food stamps. "It did not make me feel like a moocher," he writes. Yet Florida makes welfare...
View ArticleAs Scott Signs Bill Stifling Abortion Clinics, Planned Parenthood Sees Danger...
The restriction means low-income Floridians could lose access to the organization's health-care and family-planning services. Planned Parenthood said it has more than 67,000 patients in Florida...
View Article300,000 Floridians Could Lose Food Stamps as State Restores Work Obligations...
The requirement was suspended in the aftermath of the recession, but starting Jan. 1, all able-bodied, childless adults 18 to 49 were required to work, get job training or volunteer 20 hours a week to...
View ArticleRight to an Attorney Often a Myth as Public Defenders Are Overworked and the...
There is a lack of funding for public defense in every state, and people charged with low-level misdemeanors, often poor minorities, suffer the most as public defender offices focus their few resources...
View ArticleHundreds Of Thousands Lose Food Stamps In Florida as Work Requirements Kick In
In Florida if you can’t show that you’re working or meet the work requirements some other way, you get penalized and lose your food stamps for the following month. If you fail to meet the requirements...
View ArticleAccess Flagler First, County’s Outreach for the Poor, Celebrates 5 Years
Commission Chair Barbara Revels, along with commissioners Frank Meeker and Charlie Ericksen attended the celebration on behalf of the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners. The post Access...
View ArticleChain Restaurants Hurt the Economy, Pollute, And Pay Poverty Wages. Eat Local...
It's time for big chains to strengthen local economies by keeping food purchases local and ending worker exploitation. But they don't. Meanwhile, writes Anna Meyer, look for locally owned restaurants...
View Article8.8 Million More People Got Health Insurance Last Year, Largely Due to Obamacare
The increase, due to the Affordable Care Act, is unprecedented since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid 50 years ago. Expanding Medicaid--as Florida did not--would have added to the ranks of the...
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