April 2006

A universal health care coverage package went into effect earlier this month in Massachusetts. Both the program and the politics of this deal provide a model to states that are assessing the need for universal coverage.

The Illinois House and Senate each have unanimously approved Senate Bill 2195, which extends for three years until July 1, 2009, Illinois's monthly assistance program for elderly and disabled humanitarian immigrants to the United States.

Massachusetts' groundbreaking health care law provides for near universal coverage. The law requires uninsured residents to have health care insurance, expands affordable coverage options, and penalizes employers who do not offer insurance.

Under amendments to federal child-support law included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (S. 1932), child support paid regularly and on time can also help state TANF programs meet the drastically increased TANF work participation rates set under the Act and thus avoid the severe financial penalties that are imposed on states which fail to meet those rates.

Chicago is gaining low-income households much faster than affordable housing, according to a new report "Affordable Housing Conditions and Outlook in Chicago: An Early Warning for Intervention." The report provides a more detailed analysis of data than what is ordinarily available for affordable housing studies.

The upcoming May-June 2006 special issue of Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy articulates innovative and workable solutions to poverty through law and policy. The articles describe what the federal government can do more to redress poverty, examine the lessons learned from early federal antipoverty programs, and demolish the often-heard argument for a small and passive federal government.

H&R Block Inc. is facing another lawsuit, this time from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, for fraudulent marketing of savings plans to hundreds of thousands of income tax filers.