Reports & Toolkits

2010 marked the first full year of the recovery that began when the “Great Recession” officially ended in June 2009 but the latest Census Bureau data show that rates of poverty and extreme poverty rose in 2010, hitting women and families hardest. 

This brief, authored by Georgetown University Center for Children and National Women's Law Center, looks at current state efforts to align and simplify coverage for children and parents in Medicaid  and how the ACA moves states toward a more coordinated system of family-based coverage. As we examine these policies, it important to note that aligning policies and procedures is beneficial to states, as well as families. Simplified rules and requirements make it easier to communicate program information and to train eligibility workers, resulting in more consistent and accurate eligibility determinations. States that have maximized alignment and simplification policies not only ensure that eligible persons get and stay enrolled but also reduce the state’s administrative burden and costs, a high priority in the current fiscal environment. Finally, this brief makes suggestions on how states can transition toward ACA implementation and raises issues for further consideration.

Cutting the Social Security COLA by Changing the Way Inflation is Calculated Would Especially Hurt Women shows that women will be hit hardest by changing the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment from the CPI-W to the “chained CPI”.  This proposed change delivers a triple whammy to women.  Since women live longer than men, they face deeper cuts in their Social Security benefits under the chained CPI because the cuts get larger each year.  Women rely more on income from Social Security than do men, so these cuts would represent a greater share of their total retirement income.  And since older women are already more economically vulnerable than older men, these cuts will leave more of them unable to meet basic needs.

High-quality child care encourages children’s learning and development and helps them enter school ready to succeed. Yet in most communities, high-quality care is in short supply, particularly for low-income children and very young children. States and communities are working to address this shortage and improve the quality of care through a number of promising strategies, with the help of federal funding. To obtain a snapshot of notable state quality improvement initiatives, the National Women's Law Center asked child care administrators in each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia to identify their states’ most promising quality initiative and most promising infant/toddler initiative supported with these resources.