Children In Poverty

In difficult economic times maintaining a steady and sufficient income can be even more challenging.  Many available jobs do not provide the necessary income to keep a family out of poverty.  A family of 4 with an annual income below $22,000 is considered to be living in poverty according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Parents may be working, and yet they find it very difficult to provide for their children's needs if they are part of our population some refer to as the working poor.

This affects a child's development. For children under the age of 5, living in poverty and going without can create severe consequences because it is a crucial developmental stage in their lives.  Living in poverty tends to have a long term impact on a child's life; it often affects future educational achievement, and physical, behavioral, and emotional health.  Parents living in poverty and the working poor are likely to feel increasingly stressed, overwhelmed, depressed or anxious due to the ongoing struggles.  When parents are overwhelmed, every additional stress that a parent faces increases the risk of child abuse and neglect, especially if they are isolated and feeling all alone.

It is important for families with children to know what community resources are available to possibly offset some of the costs in a family's budget when going through rough times, and what supports are available to help with some of the problems creating the stress.  For information on services from prenatal care to holiday time assistance, make a free call to The Information Center at (734) 282-7171 or visit us at www.theinfocenter.info.

Human Services vs. Costs

Human services are programs that help people and families. Often those helped have limited income and resources, but these programs are not just important for poor people.  It is important that people who need help be connected to appropriate services for humanitarian reasons, and for economic reasons. Human services and social programs may include assistance with job training or job placement, emergency food, day care, health services, counseling services, and other specialized supports for seniors, veterans and others.

Recently, the Illinois Human Services Commission analyzed the value of human services and found that in many instances addressing problems before they become severe decreases the cost to the general community in the long run.  They noted that:

• Every $1 spent on child abuse prevention saves tax payers $19 in child abuse treatment.
• Every $1 spent on home care for the elderly saves tax payers $10.50 on nursing home costs.
• Every $1 spent on childhood learning generates $7 in tax payer benefits.
• Every $1 spent on drug treatment saves taxpayers $7 in reduced crime, and emergency room visits.
• Every $1 spent on job training returns $4.60 to the tax payer.

There is a great value in providing our community members with access to resources that assist people and families, and this in turn reduces the long term costs shared by all of us, from these preventable problems.

For information about local human and social services of all kinds call The Information Center (734) 282-7171 or visit us at www.theinfocenter.info.

Hope Is More Than Just A Feel Good Idea

A study mentioned in a newsletter I read recently noted the higher the stress of a parent, the lower the quality of life. No surprise there.  But significantly, the study found that in the presence of effective program services the effects of parenting stress on the parent-child relationship dissolved.  The negative affect of parenting stress dissipates as appropriate supportive services or resources are offered.  This reduces the potential for child abuse and neglect.

Good services provide hope: a pathway and the emotional energy to go forward.  Hope is not just a feel good concept.  Hope is a combination of a mental strategy or pathway to reach important goals, and the motivation or mental energy to persevere to reach those goals, especially when there are barriers or impediments in the way.  If you can envision a way forward and you have the mental energy to achieve something that is important to you, that is hope. 

Hope is what what we are able to provide when we receive inquiries from parents at our Parent Information Resource Center, and other programs at The Information Center.  We connect parents with emergency food, job training programs, support for adult children taking care of their elderly parents, and literally hundreds of other kinds of problem solving alternatives.

The call to The Information Center is free: (734) 282-7171.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Finding that next job can be a very big challenge.  Call 1(800) 285-WORKS for help with moving from unemployment to your next job.  The Michigan Talent and Jobs Bank www.michworks.org is a valuable internet resource, and will soon become MiTalent.org, .  

If you are looking for a job in Southeast Michigan you may want to receive the same steady steam of job openings announcements and leads that I receive from our  Business and Employment Specialist.  Just send an email to JeffD@theinfocenter.info and ask to be included on the email distribution list for future job leads and announcements.  There is no charge for any of these services.

Be An Informed Voter for this November's Election

USA Today's web site provides an easy to use tool to compare the two 2012 Presidential Candidates: President Obama who is seeking re-election, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney who is the apparent Republican challenger.

USA Today Candidates Match Game

Just click on this link and you will be taken to a web page where you can indicate what positions you support on 14 different issues: Jobs, Medicare, Health Care, Taxes, Defense, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Immigration, Gay Marriage, Abortion, Environment, Energy and Qualifications.  You can not only indicate how much you agree or disagree with the issue statement, you can also adjust the weights on the different issues to give more weight to the issues you care about most.

I don't know why the developers of this tool call it a "game," except perhaps they were making a game of challenging people to see if their views on key issues match up with the public policy positions of the candidate they are thinking of supporting in November.  I guess I take this stuff way too seriously.  But then, good government does start with your vote.

Changes In Health Insurance from the Affordable Care Act

The Supreme Court upheld almost all of the Affordable Care Act, yesterday.  This law is a push towards innovation and quality outcomes in health care.  It is a move towards greater cost efficiency and effectiveness.  It makes sense.

If you already have health insurance, you keep your health insurance.  Frankly, those of us who are employers purchasing health insurance for employees have seen annual double digit cost increases in health insurance premiums year after year, even as we reluctantly scaled back coverage, increased deductibles and co-pays for our employees.  Politics aside, this law brings much needed change, and makes health insurance more secure and more affordable for those of us already paying for it.

The Supreme Court also upheld the principle that people who can afford health insurance should take the responsibility to buy health insurance.  This is important for two key reasons:

First, when people who have chosen not to purchase health insurance show up at the hospital emergency room for health care, the rest of us end up paying for their care in the form of more costly health insurance premiums. They not only are not paying for the services they are receiving, they are going to the most expensive place you can go to get their  medical or other needs met. It's a double whammy for the rest of us who are footing the bill in our more expensive health insurance premiums.

Second, if you require insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions, but don't require people who can afford it to buy their own health insurance, a percentage of people will wait until they are sick or have a health problem before they buy the care they need.  This just drives up everyone else's health insurance premium costs.  Insurance companies depend upon you paying your premiums when you are healthy in order to be able to cover the catastrophic costs you unexpectly incur when you do need major medical services.

Insurance companies can no longer impose lifetime limits on the amount of care you receive.  They can no longer discriminate against children with preexisting conditions.  They can no longer drop your coverage if you get sick.  They can no longer dramatically increase your premiums without reason.

We have already seen and experienced some of the good changes in the Affordable Care Act:  young adults under the age of 26 are able to stay on their parent's health care plans - a provision that has already helped many of our kids.  Seniors, like our parents, who often have multiple prescription medications to help with their health, receive a discount on their prescription costs.

For people who do not yet have health insurance, starting in 2014 there will be a menu of affordable health insurance plans to choose from.  Each state, like Michigan, will design their own menu of alternatives, and if we can come up with even better ways of covering more people at the same quality and cost, the law allows that.  Once these health insurance "exchanges" are set up, insurance companies will no longer be able to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, charge women a higher cost because they are women, or bill people into bankrupcy.

Simply put, this is a good step in the right direction.

We Are At A Fork In The Road

We are at a fork in the road.  In the 37 years that I have been an adult voter with a professional interest in social policy I have never seen the kind of dismantling of essential "people" services as we are now witnessing.  Children, seniors, people with disability or illness, and others who depend upon help from a caring community are at risk.  Over recent years, teachers, police, firemen, helping professionals of all kinds, are being dismissed from providing their services as a result of public policy and budget decisions that give priority to tax cuts and austerity budgets.  We continue to experience fast rising costs for health insurance premiums (in the private sector marketplace!) year after year, and increasingly employers have no choice but to pass the higher costs on their employees.  Revenues to the budget are reduced due to lower taxes.

I am all for lower taxes.  I do my best each April like every other red blooded American to pay the legitimately least amount of taxes that I am entitled to.  But I do pay what I owe and understand that is my responsibility as someone privileged to be a citizen of this country.  But, somewhere along the way we got lost. We got cynical.  Our moral compass started acting erratically.  We felt taken advantage of one too many times and we became vulnerable to the simple messages that just aren't true.  When it comes to public policy and politics, sometimes simple is easier than true.  "Tax cuts will balance the budget."  Really? Do the math.  Actually tax cuts have reduced the revenue available to government at Federal, State and local levels, resulting in larger deficits, dramatically lower levels of public services, and the erosion or elimination of help services aimed at protecting and supporting our society's most vulnerable citizens.  Consequences include higher unemployment because we are laying off all those teachers, police, firemen, and people whose jobs were funded by those dollars.  Those people who don't have their jobs anymore don't have much money to spend in our local community economy anymore.

There is a different issue, however, which is accountability. Regardless of whether you consider yourself a liberal or a conservative, a middle-of-the-roader, a libertarian, or if you just don't care about politics; you should care about getting value for each tax dollar.  Are we getting value from the tax dollars that are being spent?  That is the conversation that should be taking place.  What is it worth us to educate a child to grow up to be a productive contributing citizen? What is it worth to provide health care that keeps someone out of the Emergency Room at the hospital, and/or provide mental health services or substance abuse treatment that helps an individual stay out of jail?  What is it worth to keep someone in a prison?  What would it be worth to keep someone out of prison?  What is it worth to give a business or a corporation a tax break?  Is that value different with or without the promise of new jobs?  What is it worth to us to not have to witness child abuse?  What is it worth to us to be a community that does not neglect its elderly or disabled persons? What is the value we get and what is the price we are willing to pay to have a war with another country? What is it worth to us in this country to take care of the veterans of that war when they return home, or to take care of their family when they don't come home? What is it worth us to not to have to send any soldiers into a war? As a citizen, voter and taxpayer, I want my tax dollars be used effectively.