Poverty Matters: Five Key Takeaways from the 2016 Census Data
By John Bouman
Yesterday the Census Bureau released its annual report on poverty, income, and healthcare in the United States. What do the numbers mean for people in poverty? For lawmakers? For advocates and activists fighting for economic and racial justice around the country? Below are five key takeaways.
1. Poverty still matters.
The official poverty rate fell from 13.5% to 12.7% last year, marking the second consecutive year poverty has declined and putting the official rate close to what it was before the Great Recession hit.
While the decrease is welcome, some 40.6 million people, including 13.3 million children, are still living below the poverty line. That’s 1 in 8 Americans with millions more living just on the brink. And poverty, of course, means more than simply living below a certain income threshold. As research shows, people living in or near poverty face higher levels of chronic stress and experience worse health outcomes, while encountering many other barriers to opportunity.
2. More historic progress on healthcare thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
Access to healthcare is critical to upward mobility, and it’s clear that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are helping millions stay healthy, attend school, get to work, and ultimately lead productive lives.
Yesterday’s numbers confirm that.
Flying in the face of claims that the ACA is imploding, the Census reports that the uninsured rate fell last year from 9.2% to 8.9% — a new historic low.
While we should give thanks to the historic progress produced by these programs, advocates and consumers must remain vigilant and persistent. Yesterday’s reported progress on poverty and healthcare are jeopardized by recent attempts to repeal the ACA and gut Medicaid, the Trump Administration’s reckless efforts to undermine healthcare enrollment, and a looming deadline to extend funding for CHIP.
To continue expanding access to healthcare, Congress must abandon its efforts to attack the ACA and Medicaid, take action to stabilize the individual marketplace, and extend funding for CHIP that includes the additional support provided by the ACA.
3. Inequities in poverty and healthcare remain.
Poverty touches people of all races and ethnicities — but it’s not experienced equally. In 2016, while both the Black and Hispanic* poverty rates fell significantly, Black and Hispanic people were still more than twice as likely to live in poverty as their White counterparts.
Similar disparities persist in healthcare. Although the ACA and Medicaid have delivered huge progress in closing gaps in access to healthcare, Black and Hispanic people were still significantly less likely to have access to coverage and care in 2016.
But these disparities run much deeper than what’s revealed by yesterday’s numbers. Because of our country’s long-standing and continued legacy of structural and systemic racism, Black and Latinx Americans are much more likely to experience longer bouts of poverty and financial insecurity, live in neighborhoods characterized by concentrated poverty, and lack access to opportunities that make upward mobility possible. Indeed, these racial disparities are perhaps most starkly manifest in attainment of wealth, residential and educational segregation, and health outcomes.
4. Anti-poverty programs are working.
Although the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) used by the Census Bureau is deeply flawed and woefully outdated, the Census now also reports the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) — a measure that gives us a much better sense of the financial well-being of families and individuals. It also helps us understand the significant impact many federal anti-poverty programs are having.
As the SPM shows, federal safety net programs are improving the lives of tens of millions of people in this country. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), for example, lifted 3.6 million people above the Supplemental Poverty Line last year. And in addition to helping millions stave off material deprivation in the short term, safety net programs are shown to produce long-term benefits for those who have access to them. SNAP, for example, helps children graduate high school and avoid health issues long into adulthood. While far from adequate, yesterday’s report reaffirms that these programs are crucial.
5. We must continue the fight to end poverty and advance racial justice.
Poverty and racial injustice matter in this country — and they should be an urgent priority for our elected officials and leaders.
But unfortunately, both the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans are advancing agendas and policies that promise to exacerbate racial inequities and sharply increase poverty. These include attacks on federal safety net programs, curtailed enforcement of civil rights, and sabotage of healthcare.
As yesterday’s report makes clear, advocates and activists around the country must continue to fight this harmful agenda and push for progress — at both the federal and state levels. The health, financial well-being, and chances at upward mobility of millions is at stake. And so, too, are the very values of our country.
*Note: “Hispanic” used instead of “Latinx” to remain consistent with the Census report.
Trevor Brown contributed to this blog.
