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Spring 2007
Nationwide, six million children are covered by SCHIP. We found that in 2005, 32 percent of children in rural areas relied on SCHIP or Medicaid compared with 26 percent of children in metro areas. This number has been rising steadily as manufacturing and other jobs with benefits dry up and private insurance becomes unaffordable. Even with SCHIP available, many continue to go without insurance. In 2005, more than 1.3 million rural children were uninsured. More than half of these children were in families whose head worked full-time, year round. Since SCHIP is funded as a block grant, states get a fixed amount that doesn’t change with rising demand. The block grant does not take into account inflation, and funds that would cover five children in 1997 when SCHIP was enacted will cover only four today. In 2007, states expect to spend $6.3 billion on SCHIP, but they will only have $5 billion available from the federal government. It is this gap that is forcing states like Iowa to face the prospect of expelling roughly 13,000 children from its SCHIP program. The increase and high rate of public-sector health insurance for children underscores how important the Medicaid and SCHIP programs are for all Americans, including rural Americans. Ensuring that all of our children grow up healthy is an important and effective investment in our country’s future. Mil Duncan
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Rural Children Increasingly Rely on Medicaid and SCHIPA policy brief on rural children’s health insurance, released today by the Institute, puts a spotlight on an important aspect of the State Children’s Heath Insurance Program (SCHIP) debate not yet in the public discourse. The author, Rural Fellow William O’Hare, takes an in-depth look at the health insurance programs, such as SCHIP and Medicaid, that rural children rely on for medical care. This brief comes as debates gear up about SCHIP reauthorization at both the federal and state levels. Carsey Institute rural children’s health insurance brief Introducing the Carsey Rural FellowsThe Carsey Institute is pleased to introduce our new outstanding group of Rural Fellows, who have come aboard to advise the burgeoning programs of the Center for Rural Families and Communities and to author publications within their longstanding areas of expertise. William O’Hare, a senior fellow with KIDS COUNT at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has laid the groundwork for all to come by authoring several leading Carsey publications. He is now joined by Anita Brown-Graham, director of the Institute for Emerging Issues; Leif Jensen, professor of Rural Sociology and Demography at Penn State University and author of the Carsey immigration report; Kenneth Johnson, professor of Sociology at Loyola University-Chicago and author of the Carsey rural demographics report; Daniel Lichter, director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell University; Rogelio Saenz, professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University; and Ann Tickamyer, professor of Sociology at Ohio University. Interview with O’Hare on Rural Child Poverty Interview with Brown-Graham on Job Creation in Rural America Interview with Jensen on Immigration in Rural America Interview with Johnson on Changing Rural Demographics Interview with Lichter on America’s Rural Poor Interview with Saenz on Latino Immigration Interview with Tickamyer on Rural Working Women Carsey Welcomes Demographer Kenneth Johnson as Visiting FacultyDemographer Kenneth Johnson studies why people move and where they move to, and soon he will become another data point in these statistics when he joins the Carsey Institute as Visiting Faculty. Hailing from Chicago where he teaches at Loyola University, Professor Johnson will soon trade the Great Lakes for the different amenities of the Atlantic coast, proving his point that people move to places with abundant natural beauty (although the Great Lakes are pretty grand, too). He will be sharing his rich, deep demographic experience – with a focus in changes in amenity areas and forest dependent regions – with the Carsey Institute. At Carsey, Professor Johnson will conduct research on demographic shifts in rural America adding to his growing impact on the way policymakers and practitioners understand challenges facing rural people. Carsey Demographics Report, by Johnson Rural Workers Benefit More from Increase in Minimum WageIn the heat of the debate in the U.S. Senate about increasing the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25, the Carsey Institute released research showing that a raise would benefit rural, low-wage workers every bit as much, if not more, than workers in big cities. More than half of the nearly two million low-wage workers in rural America who will benefit from this increase in the minimum wage have children under age 18 in the household. A public teleconference on this study prompted more than 40 nonprofit leaders from around the country to call in. Carsey Institute minimum wage fact sheet The Three Faces of Rural PlacesAs the Ford and Kellogg Foundation’s first Annual Rural Assembly approaches in June, Carsey researchers are talking to rural practitioners and citizens across the country – people in amenity rich areas attracting retirees, second home owners and footloose professionals; people in declining resource dependent areas where mining, agriculture, and other industries once supported a solid middle class; and people in chronically poor communities where decades of resource extraction and underinvestment have left a legacy of poverty – to provide a solid grounding for this large, national meeting. In addition to telephone interviews with Ford Foundation grantees, the research team is hosting roundtables in three regions and conducting broad surveys of rural residents in six areas that are experiencing at least one of the three broad challenges listed above. This work will offer up to date information about how people are responding to changes in rural America and help bring the faces and grassroot concerns of those in rural places to the forefront of public policy decisions. Why Community MattersOn May 3, 2007 Carsey Director Mil Duncan spoke to a packed house of nearly 1000 at the USDA Children, Youth, and Families at Risk (CYFAR) meeting in Chicago, IL. Although her talk exposed some tough challenges facing children, youth and families, she began on a positive note: “Poverty is not inevitable. Today we understand better than we ever have why children and families are poor and what can be done to end that poverty.” She shared what she feels is one of the main lessons both rural and urban researchers have learned about poverty: Poverty is influenced by culture, politics, and other community characteristics and therefore an overall commitment to greater equality of opportunity – supporting fiscal policies that grow the middle class and social policies that invest in the community institutions vital for children and families – will make a difference. Grounded in Northern New England The Carsey Institute’s
rural work is grounded in our home region of New England, and Carsey
researchers are studying socioeconomic conditions in the Northern Forest
(which stretches across three New England states and New York). In early
May we co-sponsored and provided essential coordination and information
for a meeting of 100 people at the first annual Coos County Symposium.
This event, held at The Balsams Grand Resort in New Hampshire, was sponsored
by the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
and the Public Service Company of NH to bring citizens together to address challenges and opportunities in a region undergoing big
changes as the old economy declines. Institute researchers presented current trends specific to Coos County. The
symposium concluded with broad consensus on several critical actions
steps, including a commitment to establish countywide wireless broadband
internet. |
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The Effort to Raise the Minimum Wage Hits a Snag in Washington NH Public Radio, January 25, 2007 Who’s Joining the Army? Lots of Rural Kids Looking to Pay for College MTV News, March 6, 2007 CBS News, March 17, 2007 CNN American Morning, March 19, 2007 Feeling the pain down on the farm The Star-Ledger, March 27, 2007 The Nation, April 2, 2007 For veterans in rural areas, care hard to reach The Boston Globe, April 29, 2007 |
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Caring about Caregivers The large scale movement of women into the paid labor market has brought sweeping change into family life, including who cares for the elderly and children. Today, our society depends, in part, on the caring work of many paid professionals. The Carsey Institute is studying workers in two low-wage, predominantly female caregiving occupations plagued with high turnover--direct care workers and child care workers. Although these caregivers are working, many still live in low-income families and lack health insurance. A coming policy brief will look at caregivers nationally, with information on how rural workers fare in relation to their counterparts in urban counties. A Profile of Rural Low-Income Families An upcoming brief authored by Carsey Research Assistant Allison Churilla profiles one third of all rural families, the families that are considered “low-income.” Rural economies are changing in the face of globalization, with impacts on employment opportunities for rural Americans. Through the lens of low-income families, this brief will explore how rural people are faring giving changing economies. Some of the basic challenges that confront these families will be explored through information on educational attainment, employment, government assistance and housing. Disconnected Youth in Rural America While attention to disconnected urban youths grows, the Carsey Institute will be focusing on rural youth who can’t be found in the workforce, school, or army. These are the young adults, ages 16-24, who are experiencing a difficult transition to adulthood. Two rural sociologists from Penn State University, Tasha Snyder and Diane Mclaughlin, are collaborating with the Carsey Institute to research the experiences of these youth and compare how they fare in different states. A fact sheet summarizing the research will be released this summer, with a longer report to follow.
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As
Congress is poised to debate reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), they should recognize the program’s important impact on children in rural areas. As a recent Carsey report reveals,
families in rural areas are more likely to rely on public health insurance
than private, more likely to be poor and more likely to be caught in
enduring poverty, and more likely to lack health insurance than their
urban counterparts. 
Carsey
Institute, University of New Hampshire