Blog

October 16, 2013 by WVCBP
West Virginia: Heart of the Rx Belt

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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October 16, 2013 by WVCBP
Shutdown Costs Keep Adding Up

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…

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October 11, 2013 by WVCBP
West Virginia Tops List of States Benefitting from Obamacare

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…

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October 10, 2013 by Ted Boettner
Moving Toward an Energy Transition

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…

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October 8, 2013 by WVCBP
Overdose Deaths Out of Control in West Virginia

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…

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October 7, 2013 by Sean O'Leary
260,000 Workers in West Virginia Need Better Skills and Wages

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…

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October 3, 2013 by Sean O'Leary
The State of Women in West Virginia

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…

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October 2, 2013 by Sean O'Leary
How Much is Kanawha County’s Proposed Library Levy?

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…

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September 20, 2013 by Sean O'Leary
SNAP Vital for West Virginians

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…

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September 19, 2013 by WVCBP
Who Are The Uninsured in WV? Mostly the Working Poor

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…

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