Health care is a funny thing. Everyone needs it, yet lots of people can't afford it, and hospitals have to treat them regardless. Treatment prices vary wildly depending not only on where you live but where you go and whether or not you have insurance. Oddly, those without insurance are almost always charged more for…
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As stories of the cost of the federal government's shutdown and its impact on citizens come to light, here's what it means for individuals, businesses, and the state of West Virginia. Toll on Citizens We have all heard the shutdown affects "non-essential" programs, but what does that mean? Programs that provide nutritional assistance for pregnant…
West Virginians rejoice! Rarely does our Mountain State top national rankings on good measures, but a report out this week shows that West Virginia, along with two other states, leads the country in the percent of uninsured state residents who will qualify for health insurance assistance due to Obamacare. Now, before you let your initial partisan reaction…
The Charleston Gazette had another timely editorial on Monday (I've been out of town all week) urging West Virginians to embrace the state's changing energy economy by creating solutions for the ongoing transition. As the chart below highlights, coal production has declined markedly over the last decade while natural gas is at unprecedented levels. As…
A report out this week finds that West Virginia leads the nation in prescription drug deaths. This may be unsurprising as many of us know someone who has fought addiction to pain-killers, but what is surprising is that overdose deaths in West Virginia have increased by more than 600 percent since 1999! This is an…
Unlike in the past, in today's economy, higher education is very important to finding a good paying job. Workers with higher levels of education have higher wages and lower unemployment rates, as do the states with more workers with higher education. One strategy to help low-income and long-term unemployed workers is through the creation of…
Last month, we released our State of Working West Virginia report, which looked at how workers in West Virginia are faring. Taking another perspective, the Center for American Progress released its State of Women in America report last week, which analyzes how women are faring in all 50 states. The report measures women's well-being in…
Kanawha County is getting set to vote on a proposed school excess levy in order to fund the county's library system, which recently lost the financial support of the county school district. The proposal would increase the school excess levy from 29.82 cents to 45.9 cents per $100 for class II properties, and from 59.64…
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to cut SNAP, or the food stamps program, by nearly $40 billion over the next two years, kicking nearly four million people off the program. The House bill achieves this primarily by denying SNAP benefits to unemployed workers and struggling families whose incomes are just above the poverty…
Who are the uninsured in West Virginia? Well, they are mostly the working poor, who, as it turns out, are exactly the people that the Affordable Care Act will help cover. Data released today from the United State Census Bureau provide detailed estimates on household characteristics at the state level including income, education, employment, race, and…