Medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States. This report analyzes the impact of medical debt on household finances and provides policy solutions.
Every day, many U.S. families must make the impossible choice of falling into debt to pay for critical medical care or foregoing necessary treatment. In 2014, 64 million people were struggling with medical debt and it is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States.
Yesterday, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) introduced The Degrees Not Debt Act. This legislation would create a state-federal partnership program with the Department of Education, states, and public colleges or universities in order to ensure college affordability becomes a reality for all Americans.
If nearly 70 percent of graduates are borrowing, 30 percent (including 35 percent of public college graduates) are not. Who are these students? What type of family or financial resources do they have at their disposal? What are their work habits? In short, what does it take to graduate debt-free these days? This brief answers these questions.
Today, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced major new additions to her plan to provide debt-free public college and reduce the burden of student debt for those struggling to repay. Clinton’s plan would eliminate tuition and fees for working- and middle-class students, which combined with expanded Pell Grants will allow millions of students to graduate with no debt.
Without protecting and expanding public pension systems, black retirees may lose much of the retirement security they have gained in the last 50 years, a new Demos report finds. The public sector has long been a strong source of employment for African Americans, with 21.2 percent of all black women and 15.4 percent of all black men working in the public sector.
In 2014, public pensions and Social Security together accounted for 57 percent of black retirees’ income compared to 49 percent for white retirees.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its long-standing view that colleges and universities may seek to foster diversity in higher education by considering race and ethnicity as one factor in a holistic admissions process.
Demos applauds this decision, and agrees that a diverse student body is of vital importance to the mission of higher education in America.
“America is the world's boldest experiment in a multi-racial democracy, and yet we are still working to fulfill the ideal of an equal say and an equal chance for all,” s
Public policies can either fuel or ease racial disparities in wealth. This report marks the first-ever systematic analysis of the impact of different policies, highlighting the policies that could help erase the racial wealth gap.
(BOSTON, Mass.)- Today, a broad coalition of consumer, civil rights, labor, and community organizations issued a letter strongly urging members of the U.S. House of Representatives to support of H.R. 5282, the Comprehensive Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act of 2016, introduced today by Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
This report examines the effectiveness of the employment credit check laws enacted so far and finds that unjustified exemptions included in the laws, a failure to pursue enforcement, and a lack of public outreach have prevented these important employment protections from being as effective as they could be.
Nearly 9 out of 10 working New Yorkers do not receive paid leave from their employers.
The call for paid family leave in New York is steadily growing. Just this morning, Governor Cuomo amended his paid family leave proposal to increase the payment for some of the state's lowest paid workers, and at this very moment, New Yorkers are gathering in Albany to call for a family leave insurance system that covers working people statewide.
Demos Vice President of Policy & Research Tamara Draut released the following statement:
"Tonight, President Obama delivered his last State of the Union and laid out his hopes not just for his final year of presidency but also his vision for the future of America.
Today, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a pivotal case on union rights inFriedrichs v. California Teachers Association. If they decide on behalf of the plaintiffs, the justices would overturn a 1977 Supreme Court decision allowing public sector unions to collect fair share fees from all employees to help pay for the costs associated with collective bargaining.
Despite its reputation as an antidote to inequality, the U.S. higher education system has reinforced and even exacerbated racial wealth inequality, by preventing many students of color from accessing college and loading black students with debt when they do attend.