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After taking a post-Thanksgiving bye, the latest edition of TTR has two different plans to support the labor markets (nicely timed for President Obama's speech on the issue today), an exposé of California hospitals overcharging low-income patients, and another take on what is to be done in Afghanistan.
- A progressive solution for job creation. The Economic Policy Institute is not comforted by the slowing rate of unemployment in November, citing record-high rates of underemployment and long-term joblessness as signs of a prolonged and still worsening recession. EPI's plan for job creation is a more vigorous version of what President Obama presented today: an improvement upon the safety net provisions of the Recovery Act, such as increasing the COBRA subsidies from 65 percent to 80 percent; additional fiscal stimulus to state governments, which provides nearly twice the economic stimulus as temporary tax cuts; and direct job creation through meaningful public service work. To pay for it all, the report proposes instituting a 0.5 percent financial transactions tax that is predicted to make EPI's job plan deficit-neutral in 10 years. -- LL
- A centrist solution for job creation. The Brookings Institute has put together a umber of ideas on how to promote job creation. Some interesting ideas include fulfilling Obama’s campaign promise to create a National Infrastructure Bank to guarantee loans to small and medium-size businesses currently unable to obtain them. Another idea is to include the nonprofit sector in a jobs program: creating jobs which improve the welfare of communities and spend money quickly. -- PL
- Hospitals take advantage of the uninsured. A research team composed of RAND Corporation, University of Pittsburgh, and Brown University staff has revealed most California hospitals neglect to observe laws assuring fair costs to uninsured patient, which require hospitals to provide price estimates upon request and prevent those estimates from exceeding the amount hospitals receive from Medicare or Medi-Cal for the same procedure. Of the 353 hospitals contacted, only 28 percent responded, and 15 percent of the respondents neglected to provide a quote; over half offered an estimate for hospital services only, and 18 percent did not detail cost breakdowns. The report, predictably, found hospitals charge the uninsured more than Medicare rates would allow. -- MZ
- Rethinking Strategy in Afghanistan. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace visiting fellow Gilles Dorronsoro has a smart report on how to fix the failing strategy in Afghanistan. The answer isn't necessarily more troops, but putting the resources that are already there to productive use, emphasizing attention on areas, including urban centers and the North of the country, where immediate gains can be created and secured. -- TF
-- TAP Staff
