Are paid family leave policies reaching low-income workers?
P4A researchers examined the impact of the 2017 San Francisco Paid Parental Leave Ordinance (PPLO), the first in the U.S. to provide parental leave with full pay. Findings show the PPLO moderately increased parental leave uptake among fathers but did not increase leave among mothers. Lower-income mothers reported even less knowledge of their maternity leave benefits than other mothers, and fewer than 2 percent of lower-income mothers had accurate information about the policy. Researchers suggest expanding eligibility, simplifying the program, and increasing education, particularly among lower-income women, so they understand the leave benefits available to them, to increase uptake.
The public charge rule directs the federal government to use participation in public programs (including Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, and subsidized housing), overall health status, and income as criteria to determine whether legal immigrants are able to gain permanent residency. In a new article, P4A researchers found one in eight low-income Texans had friends or family who avoided public programs or medical care in the past year because of immigration-related concerns. This represents a substantial population-level impact: the sampling frame corresponded to 3.9 million low-income citizens in Texas, implying more than 400,000 citizens knew friends or family who avoided needed programs or medical care.
COVID-19 creates pitfalls, opportunity for maternal Medicaid coverage
P4A researchers from the Urban Institute released new findings indicating many uninsured new mothers report trouble affording care and have both physical and mental health needs that would benefit from more consistent access to coverage and care that expanding Medicaid would provide. These findings are particularly relevant given the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis, which will put even more women at risk of uninsurance and in need of affordable coverage options, before, during, and after pregnancy.
The Political Determinants of Health by P4A national advisory committee member Daniel Dawes is reviewed in “Politics, Power, And Equity” (PDF) in Health Affairs.
Daniel Schneider has a new faculty appointment at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He is a professor of public policy and also codirects the Shift Project at the University of California, Berkeley.
P4A national advisory committee member Jewel Mullen is serving on an ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the National Academy of Medicine to develop an overarching framework for equitable vaccine allocation for the novel coronavirus.
