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Discussion Paper
Digital Access Deficiencies in Rural Health Care Deserts: Identifying a Role for Telehealth
Telehealth, defined as digital access to health care services, has become increasingly used by American patients since the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that many rural communities in the United States face lower access to health care relative to urban communities, telehealth offers a potential opportunity to support health care access in these underserved areas. In particular, telehealth can partly help offset fewer hospitals and health care professionals per capita in rural areas compared to their metropolitan counterparts. However, the digital divide in access to broadband and digital devices ...
Journal Article
District Digest: Understanding SNAP's Role
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a key component of the United States' social safety net and supports millions of Americans annually by providing food vouchers for households with low income and assets. SNAP supports households enduring persistent poverty as well as those temporarily in economic distress, as its enrollment expands during recessions to accommodate the unemployed. Economists Robert Moffitt of Johns Hopkins University and James Ziliak of the University of Kentucky have explained that SNAP operates like an automatic stabilizer — that is, a counterweight ...
Discussion Paper
Mitigating Benefits Cliffs for Low-Income Families: District of Columbia Career Mobility Action Plan as a Case Study
The structure of the United States social safety net features the phaseout of public assistance as household income increases, which functions as an effective marginal tax on wage gains and is commonly referred to as a "benefits cliff." This presents a disincentive for some low-income workers, especially those with children, to accept higher-paying jobs or promotions. Workforce development programs focused on helping low-income workers must contend with the challenges that benefits cliffs present to the career advancement of their clients. In this paper, we describe the overall structure of ...