Download as a PDF - CiteSeerX

More documents

Recommendations

Info

36 Hardships in America TABLE 12 Proportion of persons in families with incomes below 200% of poverty and experiencing hardships by health insurance status of family Private health Public health insurance insurance Uninsured Critical hardships Food insecurity Not enough food to eat* 10.0% 20.7% 8.7% Missed meals 10.8 25.2 22.9 Insufficient health care Did not receive necessary medical care 10.1 12.3 16.5 Housing problems Evicted* 0.8 1.5 1.8 Utilities disconnected* 2.9 7.4 3.1 Doubling up with friends or family 0.9 3.7 3.8 Serious hardships Food insecurity Kind of food* 25.2% 39.9% 27.2% Worried about having enough food 26.0 58.0 48.6 Insufficient health care Emergency room is main source of care 3.4 5.7 14.7 Housing problems Unable to make housing or utility payments 16.0 30.5 30.8 Telephone disconnected 6.8 13.7 12.9 Inadequate childcare Child cares for self 5.5 4.4 5.1 Child not in after-school or enrichment activities 16.5 23.8 25.9 Inadequate adult-to-child ratio in childcare facility 6.9 7.1 4.5 *Data for these variables come from the SIPP. Sources: Authors’ calculations from the 1993 SIPP (for calendar year 1995) and 1997 NSAF (for calendar year 1996). Having health insurance in and of itself may not be the most important reason why families experience hardships. As shown in Table 12, families are just as likely to have health-related hardships as to have other hardships. What this indicates is that families who have access to health insurance may be in a less-precarious economic position. A family without insurance may be foregoing it because it is too expensive and would prevent the family from, meeting other,
Hardships in America 37 more immediate, basic needs (such as housing, for example). A family without health insurance, however, could be thrown into financial turmoil if a health crisis—even a relatively small one—were to occur. 2.4.5 Hardships across location Location plays an important role in determining the probability that a family will experience critical and serious hardships. Table 13 shows the proportion of hardships experienced by families living below 200% of poverty in 13 states. There is a wide distribution of hardships across states. Overall, Texas has the highest proportion of families experiencing hardships in three of the categories, making it the worst performer. Families in California were the most likely to miss meals: 21% of families below 200% of poverty missed meals compared to only 17% of such families nationwide. Using the emergency room as the main source of care also has a wide range: in Alabama, 12% of families living below 200% of poverty had this hardship compared to only 8% nationally. Hardships also vary considerably by region (Figures D-G). There are no clear trends across the regions. In terms of food insecurity, there are very little differences by region. Doubling-up is lowest in New England, but the inability to pay rent or having the telephone disconnected is relatively high there. West South Central has high housing hardship in most indicators. Access to health care is best in New England and the Mid-Atlantic regions, where skipping necessary medical care is relatively low or average. The Mountain region has the highest proportion of families skipping necessary medical care, but it also has the lowest proportion using the emergency room as its main source of care. 2.5 Summary What predicts hardships Both critical and serious hardships are more common among families living below 200% of poverty, indicating that families living under the family budget level experience more hardships than families living above this level. This substantiates the family budgets analysis and documents that families below the family budget level suffer real consequences of not being able to make ends meet. Other strong predictors are being a single parent and not having private health insurance. Having a member of the family employed full-time in the labor market is also important, but the social safety net—as indicated by health insurance—is key. This points to the need for policies that strengthen the safety net and make it easier for parents, especially single mothers, to balance work and family. Compared to other nations, families in the United States are more likely to enter into poverty because of a change in family structure. Specifically, divorce is far more likely to leave families (single mothers and children) in poverty than it does in other nations (Directorate for Education, Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs 2001). This is consistent with the finding here that singleparenthood increases the probability of experiencing hardships. Employment matters, but work is not enough to enable families to escape
Page 1 and 2: HARDSHIPS IN AMERICA The Real Story
Page 3 and 4: Table of contents Executive Summary
Page 5 and 6: Hardships in America 1 Executive su
Page 7 and 8: Hardships in America 3 Introduction
Page 9 and 10: Hardships in America 5 Chapter 1 Fa
Page 11 and 12: Hardships in America 7 measures (Sh
Page 13 and 14: Hardships in America 9 prepared at
Page 15 and 16: Hardships in America 11 poverty lin
Page 17 and 18: Hardships in America 13 TABLE 3 Sha
Page 19 and 20: Hardships in America 15 compared to
Page 21 and 22: Hardships in America 17 TABLE 5 (co
Page 23 and 24: Hardships in America 19 Chapter 2 T
Page 25 and 26: specific and invasive nature of the
Page 27 and 28: Hardships in America 23 TABLE 6 (co
Page 29 and 30: Hardships in America 25 2.3.3 Insuf
Page 31 and 32: Hardships in America 27 and SIPP),
Page 33 and 34: Hardships in America 29 TABLE 7 Pro
Page 35 and 36: Hardships in America 31 TABLE 9 Pro
Page 37 and 38: Hardships in America 33 white famil
Page 39: Hardships in America 35 TABLE 11 Pr
Page 43 and 44: Hardships in America 39 FIGURE D He
Page 45 and 46: Hardships in America 41 hardship. E
Page 47 and 48: Hardships in America 43 · Pay equi
Page 49 and 50: Hardships in America 45 of eligible
Page 51 and 52: Hardships in America 47 income fami
Page 53 and 54: Hardships in America 49 Conclusion
Page 55 and 56: Hardships in America 51 When the st
Page 57 and 58: Hardships in America 53 wages, and
Page 59 and 60: Hardships in America 55 share resou
Page 61 and 62: Hardships in America 57 the core wa
Page 63 and 64: Hardships in America 59 person or f
Page 65 and 66: Hardships in America 61 TABLE A2.1
Page 67 and 68: Hardships in America 63 necessary m
Page 69 and 70: Hardships in America 65 TABLE A3.2
Page 71 and 72: Hardships in America 67 Appendix F
Page 73 and 74: Hardships in America 69 10. Tests o
Page 75 and 76: Hardships in America 71 Citro, Cons
Page 77 and 78: TABLE A4.1 Basic family budgets for
Page 91 and 92:
TABLE A4.3 Basic family budgets for
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119:
Across the country, millions of ful
show all

Download as a PDF - CiteSeerX

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?