For richer, for poorer: Alabama's damaging income gap is bad for all in the state

The gap between Alabama's poor and Alabama's rich resembles the Grand Canyon: deep, wide, imposing. Time has changed little for the positive. In fact, a new report this week shows that Alabama's gap is worsening even as the nation continues its slow churn out of the Great Recession.

"Hard work should pay off for everyone, whether you work in a corner office or a restaurant kitchen," said Kimble Forrister of Alabama Arise. "Instead, most of the benefits from Alabama's economic growth in the last decade have gone straight to the top."

Read Anniston Star editorial here.

Read "Pulling Apart" report here.

See Alabama infographic here.

Alabama among states with fastest-growing income gap, study shows

The large income gaps between Alabama's richest households and its low- and middle-income households grew even wider between the late 1990s and mid-2000s, according to Pulling Apart: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends, a new report released Thursday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), two nonpartisan research organizations in Washington, D.C.

"Hard work should pay off for everyone, whether you work in a corner office or a restaurant kitchen," ACPP executive director Kimble Forrister said. "Instead, most of the benefits from Alabama's economic growth in the last decade have gone straight to the top."

Read news release here.

Read Pulling Apart report here.

Alabama won't create health insurance exchange or expand Medicaid, Bentley says

Gov. Robert Bentley said Tuesday he would not set up a state-run health insurance exchange and would not opt into an expansion of Medicaid that could cover hundreds of thousands of uninsured Alabamians. ACPP communications director Jim Carnes said defaulting to a federally run exchange would mean less oversight, less consumer input and less control in the design of the exchange. "We feel Alabama should grab every opportunity to run the show when it comes to health care implementation," Carnes said.

Read article here.

Alabama doesn't want to control its health care fate -- or help its poor people

Birmingham News columnist Joe Kennedy pulls no punches in his assessment of Governor Bentley's decision to minimize Alabama's role in implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). "Shame on Alabama's elected leaders," Kennedy writes. "Shame especially on Gov. Robert Bentley." His column highlights ACPP executive director Kimble Forrister's statement that "Health care reform offers Alabama a way up from the bottom. . . . Alabamanians deserve as good a deal from health care reform as the people in other states are getting."

Read the column here.

Alabamians deserve full benefit of Affordable Care Act

Gov. Robert Bentley's announcement that Alabama will not take full advantage of health coverage expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a major blow to the state's health care system and overall economy. In a Nov. 13 speech to the Birmingham Business Alliance, Bentley rejected both major components of state participation in the ACA: the creation of a state Health Insurance Exchange and the expansion of Medicaid "under the current structure" to cover low-income adults.

Though the exchange decision reduces state control over an expanded health insurance market, it triggers the establishment of a federal exchange where moderate-income individuals and small businesses can shop for affordable coverage that meets quality standards. Opting out of Medicaid expansion would leave Alabama at risk of forfeiting not only health security for hundreds of thousands of uninsured low-income citizens but also a $10 billion infusion of federal dollars into the state economy over the next six years, according to an Urban Institute study.

"Health care reform offers Alabama a way up from the bottom," ACPP executive director Kimble Forrister said. "Coverage for the most vulnerable would mean more stable, timely care that lowers our reliance on emergency rooms. Better primary and preventive care would finally start to bring down the chronic disease rates that have held us back for so long. Leaving billions of federal dollars on the table in Washington is a shortsighted move for our economy. We're hopeful that the legislative and executive panels now working on Medicaid reform can propose structural changes that make a compelling case for expansion. Alabamians deserve as good a deal from health care reform as the people in other states are getting."