Despite lagging behind their counterparts elsewhere, judges are still relatively well off when compared to most other New Mexicans. A recent economic snapshot published by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee says the median household income in the state is $45,100 per year, while the median household income nationwide is $56,500 per year.
That same day, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., responded to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Pointing to the budget office’s statement that the bill would take health care away from 22 million Americans by 2026, Heitkamp discussed how that would affect North Dakota residents. “According to (Congress’) Joint Economic Committee, in 2018, more than 31,000 North Dakotans would lose private health coverage, and those with coverage would see their premiums increase by an average of almost $800,” she said.
Jun 28 2017
The Bismark Tribune (North Dakota) - Protesters urge Hoeven to reject Senate GOP health reform bill
Monthly health insurance premiums would increase by $794 in 2018, according to the Joint Economic Committee’s calculations. Under the Senate GOP bill, those with incomes of up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level would be eligible for premium subsidies, compared to 400 percent under the Affordable Care Act.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates 22 million Americans would lose health coverage under the Senate GOP bill, the Better Care Reform Act. Estimates of the number of North Dakotans who would lose coverage range from 31,100, according to the congressional Joint Economic Committee, to 70,000 from the Urban Institute.
About 1.6 million people would lose coverage next year, and by 2026 the state would lose $24 billion in federal money for Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid health care plan for the poor, Feinstein told reporters in a conference call with fellow Democrats Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Kamala Harris. "It's the most indefensible bill I've actually seen in 24 years in the Senate," Feinstein said.The numbers came from the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, Congress' Joint Economic Committee and the state of California, according to Feinstein's office.
Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, ranking minority staff member on the Joint Economic Committee, said in a recent statement. If government helps less, then families and individuals will have to pay more to get the same insurance benefits.
According to a May report from the Joint Economic Committee, that would cause premiums to increase for individuals that remain covered there. And third, the AHCA could also make it harder for some people to gain coverage because of pre-existing conditions. “(The AHCA) would devastate rural communities, including increasing the number of uninsured, stripping $839 billion from Medicaid, threatening rural hospital closures and destabilizing individual marketplaces,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, ranking minority staff member on the Joint Economic Committee, said in a recent statement.
For rural families in particular, U.S. health care policy is lacking. Though the Affordable Care Act (ACA) offered some solutions, it's by no means sufficient in practice. A proposed alternative should work to meet the needs of rural families a bit better. That's why what Trumpcare would do to rural hospitals, according to a report released by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee and the Senate Special Committee on Aging, is so troubling.
More than 3.3 million jobs stand to be created over the next decade to implement energy-efficiency upgrades, according to the report from Democrats on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. With 2.2 million people employed in the energy efficiency sector in 2016, this sector already represents a sizeable portion of the national energy economy. And the employment numbers are on the upswing. Energy-efficiency businesses forecast 13 percent growth this year alone -- almost double the 7 percent growth seen from 2015 to 2016.
The Trump administration's promises to revive the coal industry and reinvigorate the fossil fuel industry more broadly are not the only things standing in the way of renewable energy. A new report released today from the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee outlines several market and policy barriers: