NETWORK's Response to New Census Data on Poverty, Income and Health Coverage

August 29, 2007  

Each person … has a right to the conditions for living a decent life—faith and family life, food and shelter, education and employment, health care and housing. We also have a duty to secure and respect these rights not only for ourselves, but for others, and to fulfill our responsibilities to our families, to each other, and to the larger society.

-U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility

Our faith teaches us that, “[a]s Catholics, we must come together with a common conviction that we can no longer tolerate the moral scandal of poverty in our land...” (USCCB, A Place at the Table). NETWORK considers the new government report on poverty and healthcare a wake-up call for those who have ignored our responsibility to meet the needs of people struggling at the economic margins, especially children. Each of us must act to ensure that our government takes quick action to address the scandals of poverty and want in this wealthy nation.

On August 28, the U.S. Census Bureau released its newest statistics on poverty, income and health insurance in the U.S. The report revealed that, in 2006:

• 36.5 million people lived in poverty
• 12.8 million of these were children

• 47 million people lacked health insurance (up from 44.8 million in 2005)
• 8.7 million of these were children (up from 8 million in 2005)

• those in the top fifth of our nation’s economic ladder received more than half of the total income, while the bottom fifth earned only 3.4%

• racial disparities continue as African Americans have lost 8% of their household incomes since 2000.

Analysis shows that low-income families are worse off than they were during our nation’s last recession. And fewer and fewer children are able to get the healthcare coverage they need.

As we mark the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which cast a spotlight on the continuing moral scandal of poverty in the U.S., we must step forward to demand change.

The Bush Administration and Congress are currently engaged in a battle over SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and government funding of programs that address the needs of people in poverty. The president has repeatedly threatened to veto legislation that includes desperately needed new funding for these programs.

NETWORK calls on all social justice activists to contact your Members of Congress to insist that Congress fully fund programs that help lift people out of poverty and enable them to live in dignity. Legislative priorities include:

• SCHIP funding levels that enable all eligible children to receive the healthcare coverage they need

• help for 1.2 million families whose electricity or gas was shut off this year by restoring funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

• restoration of Head Start funding, which has been cut more than 10% since 2002 and which reaches only half of eligible children

• the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (S. 1668), a bill to assist in providing affordable housing to those affected by the 2005 hurricanes

• child nutrition programs within the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (including all states in the Simplified Summer Food Program, competitive demonstration grants to support school breakfasts, improved child nutrition education programs)

• the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 (H.R. 2895).

The White House must also hear that presidential vetoes of these and other needed funding bills will harm the entire nation.

This is just the beginning. Return to NETWORK’s Web site often to learn how you can help our nation finally and effectively address poverty and want.

For more information:

The Coalition on Human Needs: http://chn.org/issues/statistics/povertyday2007.html

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: www.cbpp.org/8-28-07pov-stmt.htm

Economic Policy Institute : www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_econindicators_income20070828

U.S. Census Bureau report : Current Population Survey, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance 2006: www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf

U.S. Census Bureau report , Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data from the 2006 American Community Survey: www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/acs-08.pdf

Food Research and Action Center (FRAC): www.frac.org/ESEA/index.html

National Low Income Housing Coalition: www.nlihc.org