Cindy Zeldin works for Demos, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. She says even the insured are not immune from this growing trend.
"The direction of health insurance is towards greater individual risk, greater out-of-pocket expenses and those expenses are going right on to credit cards," she says.
The report, released last week, was jointly compiled by Demos, a public policy group in New York, and the Access Project, which is affiliated with a health policy institute at Brandeis University and is trying to broaden the availability of health care in the U.S.
According to the report, called "Borrowing to Stay Healthy," about 29 percent of low- and middle-income families with credit card debt reported using their credit cards to pay medical expenses - in most cases for major medical problems.
Overall, borrowers also need to be honest with themselves before tapping their home equity, especially if the reason for the cash-out isn't a one-time cost, said Jennifer Wheary, a senior fellow at Demos.
"In the short-term, they will feel a sense of relief," she said, referring to those who use the cash to catch up with such things as credit-card payments or medical expenses.
Health care costs are rising sharply, placing stress on employers, individuals, and families. As employers look to rein in benefit costs, they are increasingly turning towards health insurance options that feature greater employee cost sharing through higher deductibles, co-payments, and other forms of out-of-pocket expenses. Others are dropping coverage entirely. Financially stretched low- and middle-income families, however, can scarcely afford these higher medical expenses.
Although Americans of all ages have endured the economic and social changes ushered in by a shift from an industrial to a technology- and service-based economy, today’s young adults are the first to experience its full weight as they try to start their lives. But the challenges facing young adults also reflect the failure of public policy to address the changing realities of starting, and building, a career and family in 21st century America.
Most parents with children under the age of 6 are in their late 20s or early 30s, making issues of family leave, child care, and work flexibility of core concern to young adults under the age of 34.
Young families across the income spectrum are financially and emotionally stressed by the demands of work and family, yet our nation has failed to address these issues in any systematic or holistic fashion.
Over the past decade, rents and home prices in major cities across the country have escalated rapidly. As young adults transition from college into the workforce, already owing an average of $20,000 in student loan debt, securing affordable housing in the current market can pose an overwhelming challenge.
Debt has become a generation-defining characteristic for today's young adults. The problem often begins with student loan debt, which today affects both community college and university students. In addition, today's young adults are relying more on credit to cover basic living expenses, particularly during those first few years in the workplace. As starting salaries have failed to keep pace with rising student loan bills, housing costs or health care costs, for many young adults the credit line becomes a lifeline.
Job security and stability were defining characteristics of the U.S. labor market from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. A large portion of the workforce was unionized, and workplace benefits such as health insurance and pensions were standard. Today, young workers can no longer expect to work at a company with the intention of staying until retirement. Union membership has dropped to just 8.6 percent of the private-sector workforce, and benefits are becoming increasingly rare. Job instability is the new reality.
In today's knowledge-based economy, a college degree is a necessary qualification for entry to the middle class. Over the last 30 years, as real wages for workers with only a high school diploma have fallen, the life outcomes for those with college degrees have diverged from those with only high school degrees. In 1977, for example, there was only a 6 percentage-point difference in home ownership rates between those with college educations and those without. Today, there is a 20 percentage-point difference.
What specific changes must nonprofit groups make to meet the demands of this new era? What are the risks of ignoring these trends? Do all nonprofit leaders need to become technophiles?
Senior Fellow Algernon Austin and Jared Bernstein discuss how the "bad culture" arguments about African-Americans are misguided at best and destructive at worst. By creating an erroneous causal link between "bad culture" and black poverty, the "Cosby consensus" prevents the country from recognizing success and building on it to create the economic opportunities that are missing for too many African-Americans.
Among the new voting requirements recently contested in courts are state-issued photo IDs and tight restrictions on voting registration drives. Proponents of such requirements tend to be conservative white Republicans who argue that tighter rules are essential for preventing voter fraud. However, critics say such laws will unfairly impact the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and college-age students, all of whom tend to vote more for the Democrats.
A public policy group is warning that voters - especially among minorities - may face attempts at intimidation and suppression in an effort to sway the election.
A study released Friday by the National Voting Rights Institute and Demos points to several incidents during the 2004 election and warns that voters nationwide may face similar problems on Tuesday.
"We think it's a serious problem," said Brenda Wright, managing attorney at the National Voting Rights Institute, who co-authored the report.
The language contained in some credit card agreements is written at a 27th-grade level, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. And many cardholder agreements today contain language requiring a minimum of a 15th-grade education, the equivalent of three years of college.
Yet with only about half of U.S. adults reading above an eighth-grade level, the report said, credit card disclosures may be meaningless to millions of Americans.