Urban Institute Latest Reports

High-Cost Loans Among the Unbanked

paffairs@urban.org ( Jessica F. Compton, C. Eugene Steuerle) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Using tax filing data, this fact sheet demonstrates dramatic behavioral differences among the banked and unbanked in their use of two at-times costly tax-time financial products, refund anticipation checks (RACs) and refund anticipation loans (RALs). Banked tax filers are much more likely to avoid such products. Even for those who are otherwise similar in income and background, the banked are 57 percent less likely to use a RAC and 83 percent less likely to use a RAL. Such evidence may suggest the need for broader strategies that encourage savings and target the asset side of the household balance sheet.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation: Activity on Many Fronts

paffairs@urban.org ( Robert A. Berenson, Nicole Cafarella) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

This Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded paper by Robert Berenson and Nicole Cafarella provides a status report on the Innovation Center's activities to dateincluding delineating the goals envisioned by Congress, detailing the new tools it was given, and emphasizing how the enhanced authority compares with CMSs traditional demonstration programs. The paper describes the Center's major initiatives to date, including those that address primary care redesign, bundled payments, ACOs, dual-eligible beneficiaries, and the health care system's capacity for spreading innovative ideas. The authors note that some observers have expressed concern that the Innovation Center's fast-paced approach may be overwhelming to smaller delivery systems.

ACA Implementation-Monitoring and Tracking: Oregon Site Visit Report

paffairs@urban.org ( Teresa A. Coughlin, Sabrina Corlette) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Many of the provisions to expand health coverage in the Affordable Care Act must be implemented by the states. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Urban Institute is undertaking a comprehensive monitoring and tracking project to examine the implementation and effects of the ACA in ten of the states: Alabama, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Virginia. This first report is a case study analysis of Oregons efforts to advance health care reform. Derived from a site visit and extensive interviews with state officials and state stakeholders, it documents Oregon's considerable progress in establishing an exchange, implementing insurance reforms, and preparing for an expansion of Medicaid, all within a challenging fiscal environment.

Measuring Effective Tax Rates

paffairs@urban.org ( Rachel M. Johnson, Joseph Rosenberg, Roberton Williams) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Effective tax rates (ETRs) measure how much people pay in taxes as a percentage of their pretax incomes. That seems simple, but theres an important complication: there are different ways to measure how much someone pays in taxes and how much he collects in pretax income. Those choices matter a great deal. As a result, it is essential to use the same ETR measure when comparing tax burdens across individual taxpayers or groups.

Boomers' Retirement Income Prospects

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

The lackluster economy, eroding traditional pensions, and volatile stock market suggest that baby boomers - those born between 1945 and 1965 - face increasingly uncertain retirements. Our projections show that lower - and moderate-income boomers will continue to rely on Social Security for most of their retirement income. While the projections reflect some good news - women will reap the rewards of working and earning more than previous generations - they also raise alarms. Between 30 and 40 percent of boomers will not have enough income at age 70 to replace 75 percent of their preretirement earnings, a common standard for measuring retirement income adequacy.

Unemployment Statistics on Older Americans : Updated February 3, 2012

paffairs@urban.org ( Richard W. Johnson, Corina Mommaerts, Janice Park) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

The recession has increased joblessness among older Americans. These graphs and tables report unemployment rates and how they have varied by age, sex, race, and education since 2007.

Distributional Effects of Individual Income Tax Expenditures: An Update

paffairs@urban.org ( Daniel Baneman, Eric Toder) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Tax expenditures on average raise after-tax incomes more for upper-income than for lower-income taxpayers. As a share of income, special rates for capital gains and dividends and itemized deductions provide the largest benefits for taxpayers in the top 1 percent of the income distribution, exemptions and exclusions benefit taxpayers in upper middle-income groups the most, and refundable credits provide the largest benefits to those in the bottom two quintiles of the distribution. Interactions among provisions make the revenue cost of all tax expenditures about 10 percent larger than the sum of the costs of the separate provisions.

How Do the Top 100 Metro Areas Rank on Racial and Ethnic Equity?

paffairs@urban.org ( Urban Institute) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

The Urban Institute's MetroTrends research team has created an interactive report card on racial and ethnic equity in the nation's top 100 metropolitan areas. A brief commentary by Margery Austin Turner, the Institute's vice president for research, accompanies the map.

Policy Options to Improve the Performance of Low Income Subsidy Programs for Medicare Beneficiaries

paffairs@urban.org ( Stephen Zuckerman, Baoping Shang, Timothy Waidmann) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Low-income Medicare beneficiaries are eligible for subsidies to help them pay premiums and cost sharing. However, these subsidies fall short of those contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that help low-income families afford adequate health coverage. In this report we consider policy options to reform Medicare's low-income subsidies to better align with ACA provisions. We estimate that a significant simplification in low-income protection and cost-sharing rules could greatly reduce burdens on the poorest and sickest beneficiaries. Depending on how they are implemented, these reforms could either reduce or only modestly increase total public spending.

Curbing Tax Expenditures

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

This paper takes a broad look at tax expenditures in the context of revenue raising tax reform. It first reviews how tax expenditures have changed over the past 25 years and provides estimates of the distribution of tax savings resulting from tax expenditures today. The paper then examines three approaches for applying across-the-board limits to a selected group of the largest and most widely utilized tax preferences. The three optionsa fixed percentage credit, a cap based on income, and a constant percentage reductioncan all be designed to raise significant revenue for deficit reduction in a progressive manner.

Health Reform's Tax on Investment: Facts and Myths

paffairs@urban.org ( Donald Marron) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

To help pay for expanded health insurance coverage, the health reform legislation enacted in 2010 included a new 3.8 percent tax on the net investment income of high-income taxpayers. When it goes into effect in 2013, it will increase the top tax rate on capital gains, dividends, and other investment income, regardless of whether the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are allowed to expire. Almost all the burden will be borne by taxpayers with extremely high incomes. More than half the burden, for example, falls on taxpayers in the top 0.1 percent of the income distribution.

Using a VAT to Reform the Income Tax

paffairs@urban.org ( Eric Toder, Jim Nunns, Joseph Rosenberg) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

In 100 Million Unnecessary Returns, Columbia University law professor Michael J. Graetz proposed a sweeping reform of the federal tax system that is intended to simplify the tax system, improve economic incentives, and maintain fairness. The Graetz proposal would remove most current taxpayers from the income tax rolls, reform the corporate income tax, significantly reduce the top individual and corporate rates, and adopt a value-added tax (VAT). This paper describes the Graetz proposal in detail and analyzes its effects on federal revenues, spending and the deficit, the distribution of tax burdens, economic incentives, and tax administrative and compliance costs.

America Owes $10 Trillion! No, $50 Trillion! Let Me Explain.

paffairs@urban.org ( Donald Marron) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

In a contribution to the Christian Science Monitor, Donald Marron discusses the estimates of America's debt which vary by tens of trillions of dollars, depending on how you count. The bottom line: It's deep but not yet fatal.

Health Reform in Massachusetts as of Fall 2010: Getting Ready for the Affordable Care Act & Addressing Affordability

paffairs@urban.org ( Sharon K. Long, Karen Stockley, Heather Dahlen) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Five years after the enactment of Massachusetts health reform initiative, gains in insurance coverage and access to care have been sustained. This report provides an update on trends in the Bay State since fall 2006, just prior to the implementation of the state's health reform initiative, along with a more in-depth overview of the circumstances of working-age adults in 2010, as the state begins implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Urban Institute Launches Infrastructure Initiative Led by Transportation Scholar Sandra Rosenbloom

paffairs@urban.org ( Urban Institute) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

A multidimensional research initiative spanning America's fragile infrastructure systems debuts today at the Urban Institute with transportation planning expert Sandra Rosenbloom as its director.

Has Foreclosure Counseling Helped Troubled Homeowners? : Evidence from the Evaluation of the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) program is a special federal appropriation, administered by NeighborWorks America, designed to support a rapid expansion of foreclosure intervention counseling in response to the nationwide housing crisis. This brief summarizes the final results of the Urban Institutes evaluation of the first two rounds of the NFMC program. Overall, the program is having its intended effect of helping troubled homeowners by improving the quality of mortgage modifications, increasing the frequency and sustainability of cures of delinquencies and foreclosures, and reducing the number of foreclosure completions for counseled homeowners.

The Tax Debate: How the Democrats Play, Too, and Often Win

paffairs@urban.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Republicans typically emphasize lower taxes, while casting Democrats as eager to further burden hard-working families. But Republicans delude themselves when they think that Democrats can't play the tax-cutting game as well.

Interactive Map Shows Local Job Strength by Sector

paffairs@urban.org ( Urban Institute) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The Urban Institute's MetroTrends research team has created an interactive map that reveals the relative employment strength in 16 job sectors for the nations top 100 metropolitan areas. A brief commentary by Graham MacDonald accompanies the map.

Tax Rates on Capital Gains

paffairs@urban.org ( Roberton Williams) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Tax rates on capital gains have fluctuated over the past century, sometimes matching the rates for ordinary income but more often substantially below them. The current top gains tax rate is 15 percent, less than half the 35 percent top rate on ordinary income and lower than at any time since the depression. But if Congress does not change the law, the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and imposition of taxes associated with the 2010 healthcare legislation will boost the maximum tax rate on gains to 25 percent in 2013.

Improving the Efficiency of Primary Care in Safety Net Clinics: San Mateo County's System Redesign

paffairs@urban.org ( Embry M. Howell, Ashley Palmer) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

San Mateo County is one of a small number of innovative local jurisdictions that is expanding coverage for uninsured adults and at the same time undertaking a reform of its safety net primary care system. We evaluated the impact of the systems redesign by comparing outcomes for a group of people served at the largest county safety net clinic prior to systems redesign (2006) to those served at the clinic after systems redesign (2009). Use of any preventive care services in a year climbed from 25.9 percent to 33.3 percent. Continuity of care also rose significantly, and emergency room use declined. The county's experience provides an example for other communities to follow as they improve the efficiency of health care services for the most vulnerable members of society.

Bringing Promise to Washington, DC : The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhood Initiative is one of the Obama administration's major antipoverty initiatives and a core strategy of the White House's Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. It is intended to improve educational outcomes by creating a continuum of school readiness, academic services, and family and community support for children from early childhood through college. The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) received one of the U.S. Department of Education's 21 Promise Neighborhood planning grants in October 2010. This policy brief summarizes DCPNI's planning year and how DCPNI intends to improve the educational outcomes of youth in the years to come.

Social Networks, Co-offending, and Gang Membership Among Latino Youth

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

This presentation summarizes findings from the Norms and Networks of Latino Youth project, funded by OJJDP. Youth in a small neighborhood were surveyed about their own pro-social and delinquent behaviors and their social networks. Survey respondents named 20 close contacts and answered questions about those individuals. Using social network analysis methods, we examined both personal networks and individual delinquency and the whole network (comprising all youths overlapping contacts), to analyze group behaviors related to co-offending and peer influence. The findings are relevant to developing appropriate interventions for delinquency and shed light on the efficacy of neighborhood-based interventions.

Collecting DNA from Juveniles

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Collecting DNA from Juveniles examines the laws, policies, and practices related to juvenile DNA collection in the United States. States have increasingly required juveniles - mostly those adjudicated delinquent but also some arrestees - to submit DNA samples for analysis and inclusion in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the FBI-operated national database. The report describes the issues encountered during the implementation of these laws, including the coordination challenges between the state crime labs and juvenile justice agencies, and discusses the challenges that researchers and practitioners face in assessing the effects of juvenile DNA collection on public safety outcomes.

State Progress Toward Health Reform Implementation: Slower Moving States Have Much to Gain

paffairs@urban.org ( Fredric Blavin, Matthew Buettgens, Jeremy Roth) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

We use the Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model to explore the correlations between a state's progress toward implementing the Affordable Care Act and the anticipated benefits of the reform for state residents, as measured by the expected state gains in insurance coverage and federal subsidies. We group states in three categories based on the status of legislative action and the receipt of level 1 federal establishment grants. We find that states that have made the least progress in establishing health insurance exchanges are in general those that have the largest potential gains in coverage and federal subsidy dollars per capita.

Controlling the Deficit: The Debate Continues

paffairs@urban.org ( John L. Palmer, Rudolph G. Penner) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The report discusses the important budget events of 2011. It begins with the House Republican budget and the president's response. The very different approaches to health and discretionary spending and tax policy are analyzed in detail. The policy debate continued into the confused debt limit negotiations of July. The Budget Control Act finally emerged. It capped discretionary spending and created a "super committee" that was to propose additional deficit reductions. The committee failed miserably. An automatic across-the-board spending cut is supposed to result from that failure. The report describes its effects on defense and nondefense spending.

DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative: Needs Assessment and Segmentation Analysis

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

In October 2010, the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) became one of 21 recipients of a US Department of Education Promise Neighborhood planning grant. The Urban Institute partnered with DCPNI to act as the data analyst and local evaluator of this ambitious initiative. The Needs Assessment and Segmentation Analysis are intended to provide a timely understanding of the needs of the community and to inform the continuum of strategies developed by DCPNI and their workgroups.

Opportunity Still Has Racial Hue

paffairs@urban.org ( Margaret Simms) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Children are more likely to succeed if they have a stable home environment, adequate nutrition and the opportunity to get a good education. Unfortunately, nearly 50 years after the march on Washington, opportunity still has a racial dimension, argues Institute fellow Margaret Simms in this commentary for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

National- and State-Level Estimates of WIC Eligibles and Program Reach, 2000-2009

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides supplemental nutritious foods, nutrition education, and referrals to other health, welfare, and social services. WIC eligibility is restricted to infants, children age 1 through 4, and pregnant and postpartum women who are either income or adjunctively eligible.

This project extends WIC national eligibility estimates to single years of age for children, produces estimates for each State and the District of Columbia, and updates methods for estimating eligibility in the territories. The project also implemented calculation of standard errors of estimate for national, regional, State, and Puerto Rico estimates.

Funding and Investing in Infrastructure

paffairs@urban.org ( Michael A. Pagano) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Funding and investing in infrastructure are not only about finding adequate resources to meet the demands of citizenry, but rather requires understanding of how infrastructure fits into the broader functions of government. This brief examines the key role of pricing infrastructure projects and how the total cost of a project (including lifetime maintenance costs) should be included in funding decisions. Current federal and state policies often encourage new building rather than maintenance and care of existing infrastructure. The role of public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects is also sometimes more about political rather than economic considerations. The author presents options to better coordinate infrastructure financing and payments across levels of government.

Modeling Income in the Near Term Version 6

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

This report describes the work the Urban Institute performed to generate the Model of Income in the Near Term, Version 6 (MINT6). MINT is a tool developed for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to analyze the distributional consequences of Social Security reform proposals. MINT is a micro-level data file of individuals born between 1926 and 2075. It starts with a rich set of income and demographic characteristics from the 2001 and 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data linked to SSA data on earnings and benefits. MINT then projects these characteristics until death or the year 2099.

Eliminating the Individual Mandate: Effects on Premiums, Coverage, and Uncompensated Care

paffairs@urban.org ( Matthew Buettgens, Caitlin Carroll) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The federal requirement for most Americans to have health insurance-the individual mandate-is an important part of how the ACA would reduce the number of uninsured. We use the Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model to estimate the effects of health reform with and without the mandate. With the mandate, the number of uninsured would decrease from 50 million to 26 million. Without a mandate, about 40 million would remain uninsured. Depending on the effectiveness of the health benefit exchanges in enrolling those eligible for subsidized coverage, exchange premiums would be 10 to 25 percent higher without a mandate.

Too Much of a Good Thing? Own Revenues and the Political Economy of Intergovernmental Finance Reform: The Albanian Case

paffairs@urban.org ( Anthony Levitas) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Decentralization projects in developing and transitional countries are typically accompanied by efforts to increase the own-revenue powers of local governments. Both the literature of fiscal federalism and the practices of donors and domestic reformers often see the strengthening these powers as critically important to the success of local government reform initiatives. The recent history of Albanian intergovernmental finance reform, however, suggests that there can be too much of a good thing: Placing the enhancement of local government tax powers at the center of decentralization projects can not only crowd outtheoretically and practicallycritically important efforts to develop stable, predictable, and adequate transfer systems, but can also be politically self-blocking. In this paper, we use the Albanian case to illustrate why in developing countries with highly skewed tax bases there are good reasons to focus first on stabilizing transfer systems, and only secondarily on expanding local government own-revenue powers.

International Competitiveness : Who Competes against Whom and for What?

paffairs@urban.org ( Eric Toder) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Political leaders and commentators frequently claim that the policies they favor will make the United States more competitive, without defining what competiveness between countries means. This paper defines competitiveness as a contest between nations for scarce and mobile resources and explores how different tax policies may help or hinder efforts to attract high-skilled labor, capital investment, and headquarters of multinational corporations. While these inputs contribute to living standards, elevating competition for them into a final goal of policy instead of a consideration that must be weighed against costs of tax policies that attract them could lead to seriously flawed policies.

Implementation and Early Training Outcomes of the High Growth Job Training Initiative: Final Report

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The High Growth Job Training Initiative (HGJTI) was a national grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Employment and Training Administration (ETA). Between 2001 and 2007, more than 160 grants were awarded to establish industry-focused job training and related projects designed to meet the industrys workforce challenges. This report is the third and final in a series from the national evaluation of the HGJTI conducted by the Urban Institute, the Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and Capital Research Corporation. This report documents the national initiative, describes the structure and implementation of projects by selected grantees, and provides nonexperimental analysis of the early impacts of job training in selected HGJTI-funded programs. The analysis relies on a review of grant applications and quarterly reports; visits to nine selected grantee sites; data collected from grantee training programs; quarterly earnings data from state unemployment insurance wage records; and administrative data from state and local public workforce system agencies.

Exploring the Measurement and Effectiveness of the Local Public Sector : Toward a Classification of Local Public Sector Finances and a Comparison of Devolved and Deconcentrated Finances

paffairs@urban.org ( Jameson Boex) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Over the past 10 years, the international development community has often treated decentralization and local governance issues through a narrow lens, focusing exclusively on the devolution of financial resources within the context of elected local governments. This paper seeks to define a more detailed metric of (local) public sector finances, which recognizes that the central authorities in each country interact with residents, civil society, and the private sector in three ways: through the direct or delegated delivery of public services (by central government entities); through deconcentrated departments or jurisdictions; and/or through devolved local governments. Formulating a detailed methodology for measuring local public sector finances will serve as a foundation to better understanding of the production function of public sector outputs and outcomes.

National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program Evaluation: Final Report Rounds 1 and 2

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) program is a special federal appropriation, administered by NeighborWorks America, designed to support a rapid expansion of foreclosure intervention counseling in response to the nationwide housing crisis. This report presents the final results of the Urban Institutes evaluation of the first two rounds of the NFMC program. Overall, the program is having its intended effect of helping troubled homeowners by improving the quality of mortgage modifications, increasing the frequency and sustainability of cures of delinquencies and foreclosures, and reducing the number of foreclosure completions for counseled homeowners.

Retirement Account Balances (Updated 1/12)

paffairs@urban.org ( Barbara Butrica, Philip Issa) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The retirement savings of American households took a big hit when the stock market crashed in 2008. Recently, however, a good portion of these losses has been reversed. This fact sheet follows trends in retirement account balances since the beginning of 2005.

The Economics of Compassion

paffairs@urban.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

A new year offers new hope, so lets pause to ask who and what makes this world a better place.

Urban Institute Business Patterns Data Set: Technical Documentation : Second Edition

paffairs@urban.org ( Beata Bajaj, Kathryn L.S. Pettit, Randy Rosso) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

This document describes the Business Patterns series source data set and the summary indicators from this set that are included in the UI data file. It also discusses technical issues associated with preparing the Business Patterns data.

Reaffirming the Work Requirement for Noncustodial Parents as Part of TANF Reauthorization

paffairs@urban.org ( Elaine Sorensen) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Research shows that work programs for noncustodial parents can increase employment and child support payments.Yet very few state TANF programs provide these work activities even though the estimated cost of implementing a requirement is zero.Congress needs to reaffirm its intent to impose a work requirement on noncustodial parents through the child support program and clearly state that child support funds may be used to fund the work programs.

The Case Against Premium Support

paffairs@urban.org ( Judy Feder, Paul Van de Water, Henry J. Aaron) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Proposals to replace traditional Medicare with "premium support"-or vouchers for the purchase of private insurance or, in some cases, Medicare-have once again emerged on the political agenda. This critical commentary on the Rivlin/Domenici proposal (markedly similar to the Ryan/Wyden proposal) finds much wanting in premium supportin particular, that Medicare already provides benefits more equitably and at lower cost than private insurance; that without "regulatory teeth", premium support would actually create coverage inequities and increase costs; and that implementation of the Affordable Care Act's payment and other Medicare reforms, not Medicare replacement, ought to be the nation's top priority in controlling overall health costs. These remarks were presented at a Brookings Institution forum on December 16, 2011.

Twelve Days of Christmas Hopes for Tough Economy, Deadlocked Congress

paffairs@urban.org ( Donald Marron) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

In a contribution to the Christian Science Monitor, Donald Marron discusses hopes for the global economy and the political leaders struggling to keep it on an even keel.

Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM) Methodology Documentation

paffairs@urban.org ( Matthew Buettgens) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Describes in detail the Urban Institute's Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM) and the methodology behind it.

Supportive Housing for the Disabled Reentry Population : The District of Columbia Frequent Users Service Enhancement Pilot Program

paffairs@urban.org ( Jocelyn Fontaine, Douglas Gilchrist-Scott, Aaron Horvath) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Using qualitative and quantitative data, this report discusses the history, performance, and progress of the District of Columbia Frequent Users Service Enhancement Pilot Program, implemented by the Corporation for Supportive Housing. As a supportive housing reentry program focused on disabled individuals with histories of homelessness and incarceration, the program intended to provide housing and coordinate services for 50 "frequent users" leaving the city jail. Over the first year of operations, the program successfully identified and targeted more than a dozen frequent users and linked them to supportive housing through effective cross-system coordination. Policy implications of the evaluation findings are discussed.

TANF Recipients' Implicit Tax Rates from Earnings Disregard Policies

paffairs@urban.org ( Austin Nichols, David Kassabian) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

An important dimension of AFDC/TANF programs is the disincentives to work recipients face due to the reduction in benefits that comes with an increase in earnings. These disincentives can be represented as average (implicit) tax rates that depend directly on policy variables including the maximum benefit and the disregard policy in states. To help those interested in better understanding these implicit tax rates, we have provided a dataset of relevant summary variables including the maximum benefit, the effective tax rate on the first $500 of earnings (in 2010 dollars), the effective tax rate on a part-time full-month minimum wage job, and how these measures vary across families of different sizes for each state in each year from 1996 to 2010. The dataset and accompanying tables were derived from the Urban Institute's Welfare Rules Database, and are available as a PDF file (with documentation/discussion) or as an Excel file and Stata dataset.

Sarah Rosen Wartell, Think Tank Executive and Housing Finance Expert, to be the Urban Institute's Third President

paffairs@urban.org ( Urban Institute) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Sarah Rosen Wartell, a public policy executive and housing markets expert who co-founded the Center for American Progress (CAP) and serves as its executive vice president, will become the third president of the Urban Institute at the end of February.

Recent Trends in Childhood Asthma-Related Outcomes and Parental Asthma Management Training

paffairs@urban.org ( Genevieve M. Kenney, Adela Luque, Christine Coyer) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Asthma is one of the most common chronic conditions among children in the United States, affecting nearly 10 percent of children in 2008. Medicaid and CHIP are covering a growing number of asthmatic children; by 2008, two-thirds of low-income asthmatic children were covered by Medicaid/CHIP. Our findings suggest that over the last decade, there has been a trend towards improvement in asthma-related outcomes and receipt of parental asthma management training for asthmatic children with Medicaid/CHIP coverage. Further expansions in health insurance coverage could lead to reductions in negative asthma outcomes and their associated costs, but other changes to the service delivery system would be needed as well.

Containing the Growth of Spending in the U.S. Health System: Methods Appendix

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

The growth in U.S. health care spending has become a focal point in debates over federal and state health care reform. While the problem is easy to quantify, strategies for slowing rising expenditures are controversial, and evidence of their effectiveness is often elusive. Our full report provides background that describes the problem and reviews the cost containment provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It also presents estimates of cost savings from several policies that go beyond those included in the ACA. In this appendix, we provide more detail on the methods used to generate these cost savings estimates.

Teddy Roosevelt Redux?

paffairs@urban.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

The debate over the relationship between government and the rich has been part of every presidential contest for more than a century. But myths and misunderstandings pervade attempts to compare 2012 and 1910 with policy prescriptions in mind. Chief among the myths propagated by both political parties is that, for better or worse, larger and more engaged government has come about through taxing the rich.

Composition of Tax-Deductible Charitable Contributions

paffairs@urban.org ( Joseph Rosenberg) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Taxpayers who elect to itemize can claim a deduction against federal income tax liability for contributions made to registered charitable organizations. While cash gifts still account for the vast majority of charitable donations reported on tax returns, gifts of noncash property have grown as a share of total contributions. Gifts of corporate stock, mutual funds, and other investments account for the largest share of noncash donations and are almost exclusively reported by high-income taxpayers.