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Gulf Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Adding work needs to Medicaid isn't a bad idea
Over the past 46 years that I've been part of America's job training system, work requirements for government benefits have been proposed several times. Each time these work rules have been initially denounced by opponents as 'cruel,' 'punitive,' 'blaming the victim' — with accompanying fears that benefit recipients were not ready to be employed and would lose needed benefits. Yet each time work requirements have been implemented, they have resulted in increased employment and other life benefits for a significant segment of participants, their families and local communities. Those are the metrics by which to measure success; reducing the rolls of benefit programs has not been the main goal sought by advocates of previous work requirements. The results have been documented over the years by scholars representing a range of viewpoints: Harry Holzer of Georgetown, Lawrence Mead of New York University and the professional research staff at MDRC, to cite a few. These results have been seen with work rules imposed for welfare recipients, recipients of various General Assistance benefits and parents who owe child support. They will be seen again if the proposed Medicaid work rules go forward and are implemented seriously and with purpose. Individuals on welfare and other benefit programs often need a push into the job world. They may lack confidence, have become discouraged or have no idea how to get started. Work rules provide that push. They also provide a support network for job placement and retention. America Works is one of the nation's largest job agencies serving unemployed people, referred by various government benefit programs. Each participant is assigned a job counselor and develops an individual employment plan. The counselor is to identify job openings, assist the participant in applying, advocate for the participant to employers. The counselor is also trained to be the coach whom all job seekers need: keeping spirits up through the (likely many) rejections, serving as a problem solver during the placement process and troubleshooting when job issues inevitably arise after placement. At each stage, the participant is no longer on their own. Since the early 1980s, work rules have been most extensively tested, studied and monitored in the welfare system, first as pilot projects by individual states and later under the federal welfare reform of 1996. Welfare scholars of the 1980s, including Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. President Judith Gueron would highlight how much previous welfare policies divorced from work requirements had underestimated the work orientation and strengths of welfare recipients. Researchers of welfare-to-work programs of the 1990s and early 2000s at the Urban Institute and with a consortium of university centers would confirm the widespread work orientation of welfare recipients, as well as their abilities to function in the work world. This is not to romanticize welfare-to-work. Despite the counseling and supports (transportation subsidies, child-care subsidies), a good number of participants drop out during the placement process or within a year of job placement. They do so because of chaotic personal lives or mental illnesses or developmental disabilities that the job placement system is unable to address. They do so because of an absence of a family network, or because they don't want to risk the other housing, healthcare and food stamp benefits they receive beyond the welfare payment. Even those who obtain jobs often struggle economically. At the same time, for those who are able to maintain a job, the job frequently brings values beyond the income. Jason Turner, the architect of the early Wisconsin welfare-to-work successes and later commissioner of New York City's Human Resources Administration, references the power of the job, drawing on his experiences over four decades. A job brings structure to participants in work requirement programs, somewhere to go every day. It brings a new confidence, which can translate into addressing daily life responsibilities that previously seemed overwhelming. In theory, the importance of employment is hailed across the political spectrum. In practice, though, the ties of government benefits to employment have been weakened in the past two decades — and so many opportunities to demonstrate the value of this connection have been missed. Welfare-to-work requirements have been diluted in major cities and blue states. Employment efforts for recipients of Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance have stalled. Guaranteed incomes schemes removed from employment have gained currency.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Contributor: Adding work requirements to Medicaid isn't a bad idea
Over the past 46 years that I've been part of America's job training system, work requirements for government benefits have been proposed several times. Each time these work rules have been initially denounced by opponents as 'cruel,' 'punitive,' 'blaming the victim' — with accompanying fears that benefit recipients were not ready to be employed and would lose needed benefits. Yet each time work requirements have been implemented, they have resulted in increased employment and other life benefits for a significant segment of participants, their families and local communities. Those are the metrics by which to measure success; reducing the rolls of benefit programs has not been the main goal sought by advocates of previous work requirements. The results have been documented over the years by scholars representing a range of viewpoints: Harry Holzer of Georgetown, Lawrence Mead of New York University and the professional research staff at MDRC, to cite a few. These results have been seen with work rules imposed for welfare recipients, recipients of various General Assistance benefits and parents who owe child support. They will be seen again if the proposed Medicaid work rules go forward and are implemented seriously and with purpose. Individuals on welfare and other benefit programs often need a push into the job world. They may lack confidence, have become discouraged or have no idea how to get started. Work rules provide that push. They also provide a support network for job placement and retention. America Works is one of the nation's largest job agencies serving unemployed people, referred by various government benefit programs. Each participant is assigned a job counselor and develops an individual employment plan. The counselor is to identify job openings, assist the participant in applying, advocate for the participant to employers. The counselor is also trained to be the coach whom all job seekers need: keeping spirits up through the (likely many) rejections, serving as a problem solver during the placement process and troubleshooting when job issues inevitably arise after placement. At each stage, the participant is no longer on their own. Since the early 1980s, work rules have been most extensively tested, studied and monitored in the welfare system, first as pilot projects by individual states and later under the federal welfare reform of 1996. Welfare scholars of the 1980s, including Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. President Judith Gueron would highlight how much previous welfare policies divorced from work requirements had underestimated the work orientation and strengths of welfare recipients. Researchers of welfare-to-work programs of the 1990s and early 2000s at the Urban Institute and with a consortium of university centers would confirm the widespread work orientation of welfare recipients, as well as their abilities to function in the work world. This is not to romanticize welfare-to-work. Despite the counseling and supports (transportation subsidies, child-care subsidies), a good number of participants drop out during the placement process or within a year of job placement. They do so because of chaotic personal lives or mental illnesses or developmental disabilities that the job placement system is unable to address. They do so because of an absence of a family network, or because they don't want to risk the other housing, healthcare and food stamp benefits they receive beyond the welfare payment. Even those who obtain jobs often struggle economically. At the same time, for those who are able to maintain a job, the job frequently brings values beyond the income. Jason Turner, the architect of the early Wisconsin welfare-to-work successes and later commissioner of New York City's Human Resources Administration, references the power of the job, drawing on his experiences over four decades. A job brings structure to participants in work requirement programs, somewhere to go every day. It brings a new confidence, which can translate into addressing daily life responsibilities that previously seemed overwhelming. In theory, the importance of employment is hailed across the political spectrum. In practice, though, the ties of government benefits to employment have been weakened in the past two decades — and so many opportunities to demonstrate the value of this connection have been missed. Welfare-to-work requirements have been diluted in major cities and blue states. Employment efforts for recipients of Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance have stalled. Guaranteed incomes schemes removed from employment have gained currency. The current proposed Medicaid work rules exclude Medicaid recipients with disabilities, mental health conditions and adults with young children. They also exclude the large number of Medicaid recipients who work part time or full time. None of these Medicaid recipients are at risk of losing health benefits. For the remaining group, the 'able-bodied' without young children, America has a vast workforce network at the ready to provide job placement services. No new bureaucracy is needed. It is a network of community-based agencies, workforce intermediaries and local American Job Centers, with lengthy experience in placing workers who have been outside the job mainstream. Though the first jobs that Medicaid recipients obtain will mainly be entry-level, lower-wage jobs, the recipients will be better off economically and at least on a path to the workforce system's goal of 'a job, a better job, a career.' Medicaid work rules are not cruel or punitive. They help Americans to reclaim the power of the job. Michael Bernick, a former director of the California Labor Department, serves on the state's Behavioral Health Oversight Commission. If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Adding work requirements to Medicaid isn't a bad idea
Over the past 46 years that I've been part of America's job training system, work requirements for government benefits have been proposed several times. Each time these work rules have been initially denounced by opponents as 'cruel,' 'punitive,' 'blaming the victim' — with accompanying fears that benefit recipients were not ready to be employed and would lose needed benefits. Yet each time work requirements have been implemented, they have resulted in increased employment and other life benefits for a significant segment of participants, their families and local communities. Those are the metrics by which to measure success; reducing the rolls of benefit programs has not been the main goal sought by advocates of previous work requirements. The results have been documented over the years by scholars representing a range of viewpoints: Harry Holzer of Georgetown, Lawrence Mead of New York University and the professional research staff at MDRC, to cite a few. These results have been seen with work rules imposed for welfare recipients, recipients of various General Assistance benefits and parents who owe child support. They will be seen again if the proposed Medicaid work rules go forward and are implemented seriously and with purpose. Individuals on welfare and other benefit programs often need a push into the job world. They may lack confidence, have become discouraged or have no idea how to get started. Work rules provide that push. They also provide a support network for job placement and retention. America Works is one of the nation's largest job agencies serving unemployed people, referred by various government benefit programs. Each participant is assigned a job counselor and develops an individual employment plan. The counselor is to identify job openings, assist the participant in applying, advocate for the participant to employers. The counselor is also trained to be the coach whom all job seekers need: keeping spirits up through the (likely many) rejections, serving as a problem solver during the placement process and troubleshooting when job issues inevitably arise after placement. At each stage, the participant is no longer on their own. Since the early 1980s, work rules have been most extensively tested, studied and monitored in the welfare system, first as pilot projects by individual states and later under the federal welfare reform of 1996. Welfare scholars of the 1980s, including Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. President Judith Gueron would highlight how much previous welfare policies divorced from work requirements had underestimated the work orientation and strengths of welfare recipients. Researchers of welfare-to-work programs of the 1990s and early 2000s at the Urban Institute and with a consortium of university centers would confirm the widespread work orientation of welfare recipients, as well as their abilities to function in the work world. This is not to romanticize welfare-to-work. Despite the counseling and supports (transportation subsidies, child-care subsidies), a good number of participants drop out during the placement process or within a year of job placement. They do so because of chaotic personal lives or mental illnesses or developmental disabilities that the job placement system is unable to address. They do so because of an absence of a family network, or because they don't want to risk the other housing, healthcare and food stamp benefits they receive beyond the welfare payment. Even those who obtain jobs often struggle economically. At the same time, for those who are able to maintain a job, the job frequently brings values beyond the income. Jason Turner, the architect of the early Wisconsin welfare-to-work successes and later commissioner of New York City's Human Resources Administration, references the power of the job, drawing on his experiences over four decades. A job brings structure to participants in work requirement programs, somewhere to go every day. It brings a new confidence, which can translate into addressing daily life responsibilities that previously seemed overwhelming. In theory, the importance of employment is hailed across the political spectrum. In practice, though, the ties of government benefits to employment have been weakened in the past two decades — and so many opportunities to demonstrate the value of this connection have been missed. Welfare-to-work requirements have been diluted in major cities and blue states. Employment efforts for recipients of Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance have stalled. Guaranteed incomes schemes removed from employment have gained currency. The current proposed Medicaid work rules exclude Medicaid recipients with disabilities, mental health conditions and adults with young children. They also exclude the large number of Medicaid recipients who work part time or full time. None of these Medicaid recipients are at risk of losing health benefits. For the remaining group, the 'able-bodied' without young children, America has a vast workforce network at the ready to provide job placement services. No new bureaucracy is needed. It is a network of community-based agencies, workforce intermediaries and local American Job Centers, with lengthy experience in placing workers who have been outside the job mainstream. Though the first jobs that Medicaid recipients obtain will mainly be entry-level, lower-wage jobs, the recipients will be better off economically and at least on a path to the workforce system's goal of 'a job, a better job, a career.' Medicaid work rules are not cruel or punitive. They help Americans to reclaim the power of the job. Michael Bernick, a former director of the California Labor Department, serves on the state's Behavioral Health Oversight Commission.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. hiring cools in January; unemployment claims in California increase due to the fires
U.S. job growth slowed at the start of the year, the government said Friday, as business services, manufacturing and other major industries held back on adding new jobs amid increased uncertainty around the economy. The exceptions were retail, healthcare and government, which accounted for almost all of the 143,000 net new jobs added last month. That's still healthy growth, but lower than the 170,000 economists were expecting. And both government and healthcare employers could soon feel the effects of the Trump administration's moves to pare down federal payrolls and public aid that is critical for health services and social assistance. The nation's unemployment rate, meanwhile, dropped to 4% from 4.1% in December after the Bureau of Labor Statistics made statistical adjustments to reflect population and employment gains that were due largely to strong foreign migration. The bureau said that neither the Southern California fires, which began Jan. 7, nor the severe winter weather in parts of the country had a significant effect on last month's job numbers. The labor impact from the fires, however, is likely to show up in California's employment data for January. The state's Employment Development Department said that as of Tuesday, workers had filed about 5,300 unemployment benefit claims linked to the fires. That's about 10% of the total new claims filed statewide in the most recent week. For months now, California has been lagging behind the nation in job growth, with hiring weakness in major sectors such as high tech and entertainment. The state's unemployment rate for December was 5.5%, the second highest in the country behind Nevada, which was 5.7%. Los Angeles County's jobless rate was 6% at the end of last year. The EDD said the statewide jobs report for January won't be released until March 17, later than usual for most months, due to a yearly review of the statistics using a wider array of information. Friday's national jobs report also showed that the U.S. added about 600,000 fewer jobs last year than previously reported. The adjusted figures show that the U.S. economy added, on average, 166,000 jobs a month last year, down from 216,000 in 2023. Over the last year, job openings have fallen and fewer people are quitting their jobs. The outlook in the labor market has become more cloudy as the new administration has promised to increase tariffs, cut taxes and government regulations, and make mass deportations of immigrants who are in the country illegally. 'The job market still looks solid — and the largest threats to its steadiness are Trump's plans to deport immigrants and raise tariffs,' said Harry Holzer, a labor economist and public policy professor at Georgetown University. Sign up for our Wide Shot newsletter to get the latest entertainment business news, analysis and insights. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Boston Globe
06-02-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Layoffs hit contractors and small businesses as Trump cuts take effect
'Having funding yanked so quickly means government contracts are at risk, health research is on hold, and millions of employees are getting conflicting messages about their jobs,' said Harry Holzer, a professor at Georgetown University and former Labor Department chief economist. 'We don't know where this is going to end up, but we can't dismiss its effects on the economy.' Advertisement Still, the labor market remains strong, and economists say it could take weeks or months before government-related job losses show up in national data. At 4. 1 percent, unemployment is low, and there are more open positions than people looking for work. New figures Friday are expected to show that job growth continued in January, with employers adding an estimated 165,000 new positions. Even so, economists say the new president's funding cuts, tariff threats and deportations could quickly change the economic picture. The Trump administration has taken dramatic steps to shrink the federal workforce by making it easier to fire employees, putting nearly 10,000 USAID employees on leave and offering buyouts to millions of federal workers. The White House has warned that additional public-sector layoffs are 'likely' if enough of the 2.3 million-person federal workforce doesn't leave voluntarily. As of Wednesday evening, some 40,000 federal workers had agreed to resign, though a federal judge on Thursday paused the deadline for the buyout program. A hearing on the matter is set for Monday. Advertisement The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the meantime, government contractors are scrapping projects and announcing layoffs. Chemonics International, an international development firm based in D.C., has furloughed more than 600 U.S. workers and cut hours for an additional 300 employees as a result of the government's 'stop-work order' for USAID-funded projects. A spokeswoman for the company said it is still waiting for millions of dollars in funding from invoices filed as far back as November. Another firm, DAI Global in Bethesda, Maryland, has furloughed nearly 400 of its workers, accounting for roughly 70 percent of its American workforce. Sarah Nichols was furloughed from her job at an economic development consultancy last week, after its contracts with USAID were put on hold. The 29-year-old filed for unemployment on Tuesday and is making plans to move back in with her parents after her lease expires this month. But even that feels rocky: Both of her parents work for the federal government and are worried about losing their jobs, too. 'My LinkedIn feed is just thousands of people in the industry who have been laid off or furloughed,' said Nichols, who lives in Arlington, Virginia. 'I'm applying for jobs, but if I want to do something in education or public health that's federally funded, it's like, 'Am I going to get this job and then just laid off again?'' Although government employees and contractors tend to have higher levels of education than the rest of the workforce and are typically quick to be snapped up by other employers, economists say the sheer scale of the latest job losses complicates the picture. People who work in international development, for example, or environment and climate-related positions are likely to have a hard time finding new employment when much of the industry is at a standstill. Advertisement The most recent job losses among contractors and other small businesses, economists say, will probably show up in official jobs numbers in the next month or two. Although federal workers have generally been told that they will be paid through September if they resign now, that is not the case for private-sector and nonprofit workers who rely on government funding, said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. 'It's the private-sector contractors who don't have protections and will probably suffer the earliest blows,' she said. 'These jobs are pretty heavily concentrated in administration and program work, information management — and in those areas, we really could see an increase in unemployment and depression in wages.' Frederic, a project manager for a defense contractor in central Virginia, was laid off this week, along with 70 percent of his team. His special project for the Army was put on hold, he said, making it tough for his employer to keep him on the payroll. 'I didn't expect a Trump win to cause me to lose my job, but that's what happened,' said Frederic, who spoke on the condition that only his middle name be used to share internal details about his job, because he feared he would lose future employment opportunities. 'I went from making $140,000 a year to having to tap into my 401(k).' Advertisement On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed dozens of executive orders, including one that required agencies 'immediately pause' green-energy-related funding allocated by the Biden administration. Although that funding could be reinstated after a 90-day review, the looming uncertainty has been enough to hobble some small businesses. Zero Emissions Northwest, a consulting firm in Spokane, Washington, that works with agricultural and rural businesses, furloughed all three of its staffers last week after its contracts with the Agriculture Department were essentially frozen overnight. CEO David Funk submitted his last invoice to the government on Jan. 15 and was told weeks later that 'the payment is not coming,' he said. 'As soon as I found out, we had to take action quickly,' he said of the furloughs. 'As a small business, I can't afford to pay my employees while we wait months for funding that might never come.' The D.C. region, which relies on the federal government for 40 percent of its economy, is likely to face the biggest hit from government-related job losses. But the rest of the country isn't immune: Every five federal government jobs that are lost typically wipe away an additional two jobs nationwide, according to Terry Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University. 'There are real spillover effects here,' he said. 'If a scientist working at a university lab loses their funding, they've lost their job, they've lost their household spending, and that affects other jobs across the economy.' In Fayetteville, North Carolina, Marie's dream job at a USAID contracting firm was rescinded just days before she was set to start. Marie, who spoke on the condition that only her middle name be used because she fears blowback from future employers, had been working toward the job for years, taking on global health projects and finishing a master's degree while her husband was deployed. Advertisement Now, instead of starting a new job, which was set to begin this week, she's making plans to deliver food through DoorDash and is contemplating pulling her young children out of day care to save money. 'I was really looking forward to this year being stress-free for the first time in years,' she said. 'But now I don't know when I'm going to be able to find work again.'
