North Dakota Economic Security and Prosperity Alliance: From CBPP: This Week at CBPP we focused on health, food assistance, Social Security, federal taxes, state taxes, and the economy.

This week at CBPP we focused on health, food assistance, Social Security, federal taxes, state taxes, and the economy.

On health, Peggy Bailey urged policymakers to embrace proposals that would maximize Medicaid’s coverage of substance use disorder services and supports and leverage grant funding for housing assistance for people transitioning out of treatment as they consider ways to address the opioid epidemic. Sarah Lueck called on states to enact protections against short-term health plans. Hannah Katch wished Medicaid a happy 53rd birthday by highlighting the program’s high-quality, comprehensive, and efficient coverage. Jennifer Wagner noted that eligible Arkansas Medicaid beneficiaries struggled to meet the state’s rigid work requirements in June. We updated our Sabotage Watch tracker of efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act.
On food assistance, LaDonna Pavetti pointed to several recent studies that counter the Council of Economic Advisers’ claims that taking away people’s SNAP, Medicaid, or housing assistance if they don’t meet rigid work requirements would be a beneficial way to increase work participation. We also updated our analyses of the House and Senate versions of the farm bill.
On Social Security, Kathleen Romig celebrated the birthday of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which provides modest benefits to workers who can no longer support themselves due to serious and long-lasting medical impairments. We also updated our backgrounder and chart book on SSDI.
On federal taxes, Chye-Ching Huang explained that indexing capital gains for inflation would create yet another tax cut for the top 1 percent.
On state taxes, we updated our fact sheet on state estate and inheritance taxes.
On the economy, we updated our backgrounder on unemployment compensation and our chart book on the legacy of the Great Recession.