Albuquerque, NM - For New Mexico residents who've been laid off, COBRA can seem more like a boa constrictor – as it swallows up their unemployment checks. The COBRA plan is supposed to extend health insurance between jobs. It allows former employees to continue their health insurance under their old company's group plan, as long as they can pay the premiums themselves.

However, that's easier said than done. Ron Pollock, executive director of the healthcare reform advocacy group Families USA, says COBRA coverage consumes more than 86 percent of the average New Mexican's unemployment check. It's one of the highest rates in the nation, he adds.

"In New Mexico, the average unemployment insurance check is $1,228, and the average COBRA premium for family coverage is $1,059."

So what choices does a family have for health insurance, if the primary breadwinner is out of work? Pollack says those who have children should find out if they qualify for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)- a program that Congress is voting to expand, just this week - and perhaps use COBRA only to cover the adults in the family.

"It means you're 'splitting up' the family, in terms of what coverage they have, but it may make the burden on COBRA a little better."

The Families USA report examined figures for every state and says, nationally, COBRA premiums eat up about 84 percent of the average unemployment check. In Pollock's view, unemployed workers either need premium subsidies to help them afford COBRA benefits, or temporary health "safety net" coverage through Medicaid.

See the full report online, at www.familiesusa.org.




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Ohio lawmakers are considering legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour for most Ohio workers and create a refundable Ohio Earned Income Tax Credit.

Ohio's minimum wage is $10.45 per hour for most employees, which is higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

Policy Matters Ohio economist Michael Shields said provisions in Ohio law weaken minimum-wage protections for certain groups, including workers younger than 16, workers who have a disability and tipped workers.

"Employers who staff tipped workers are allowed to claim a portion of those workers' tips and use it to offset the wages that they pay those workers," he said. "So, tipped workers can be paid as little as $5.25 per hour."

A citizen's ballot initiative to raise the wage will appear before voters this November if it gathers the more than 442,000 valid signatures needed by July 23 to be included on the ballot. Shields said increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would benefit nearly 1 million Ohioians, around 30% of whom are Black and Latino workers.

Shields said everyone deserves to be paid a wage that honors the value of work and is proportional to cost of living. Despite increases in worker productivity over the past few decades, he said employers have successfully kept wages down.

"The typical Ohio worker today produces about 76% more than their counterpart did at the end of the 1970s," he said, "but over that timeframe, wages for the worker in the middle, the median worker has gone up by just 4%."

If passed, the ballot measure would take effect in 2026. Senate Bill 256 would go into effect in 2028.

This story was produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.

A collaboration between the federal government and local communities works to create new career opportunities.

The Flint Environmental Career Worker Apprentice Readiness Training Program is funded by the Biden Administration's Justice40 initiative.

Tony Johnson, a Black single father from Michigan, credits the program with altering his family's future. He started his carpentry apprenticeship in April 2024 and is now on track for a union job in Flint. Johnson said this is the only program he has ever been part of which has created a career opportunity.

"Imagine going to college and after finishing your program, the instructor line you up with jobs and they keep in contact with you," Johnson explained. "They gave us connections and comfort and stability knowing that we're not in this alone."

Johnson stumbled upon the program by chance and thinks it needs promotion in more Michigan communities. It partners with community colleges, historically Black colleges and universities and apprenticeship programs, training more than 13,500 people. It claims a 70% job placement rate.

Johnson noted as a single parent, trying to work in retail or other jobs would not have been as beneficial for his family's future.

"It's hard living on a single income nowadays with a one-parent household," Johnson acknowledged. "Right now I got the funds, the ability to be able to not just provide but to save for their future instead of living check to check."

Johnson added the apprenticeship program is not only stabilizing but creates a pathway to long-term security and the opportunity to retire one day. He sees it as a valuable lesson and encouraged a positive mindset in his children, emphasizing what they can achieve. The opportunity affects his family both mentally and physically, shaping their outlook on opportunities and possibilities.


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The nation's billionaires have doubled their wealth over the past seven years, while working people in West Virginia and elsewhere continue to face economic struggles.

The collective fortune of America's more than eight hundred billionaires hit a record $5.8 trillion in April, according to a new report by Americans for Tax Fairness.

Gary Zuckett, executive director of the Citizen Action Education Fund, said the Mountain State is just beginning to see the ramifications of a deep income tax cut that was passed last year by state lawmakers.

He said the lack of funding has made it difficult to address steadily worsening problems.

"Like the child-care crisis in West Virginia, the corrections crisis - our prisons have been in the state of emergency for the last three or four years," said Zuckett. "There's a lot of things that we need to be using our tax money for, besides giving it to the rich in income tax cuts."

America's billionaires now own more than 50% more wealth than does the entire bottom half of the nation's households.

Under the current tax code, however, the staggering wealth gains made by the richest are unlikely to ever be taxed.

Trump-era tax benefits for the wealthy enacted in 2017 are set to expire at the end of 2025.

Zuckett explains that the laws cut the top income-tax rate from more than 39% to 37%, and cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.

"The mom and pop grocery stores and the people working in Walmart, everyday working people," said Zuckett, "pay taxes on every dollar that they earn, but the system is rigged to benefit people at the top."

According to the report, if the wealthiest Americans were taxed at the rate of average Americans, the nation would have new potential tax revenue of roughly $120 billion each year, which could help pay for more affordable and accessible health care.





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