Category: Health – Happiness

What Joe Biden could do to bring down drug costs

VOX

What Joe Biden could do to bring down drug costs

Pharma is having its best moment in years. What does it mean for Biden’s health care agenda?
By Dylan Scott                           
President-elect Joe Biden may have a difficult time reining in drug prices, given the drug industry’s renewed political clout during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Washington Post/Getty Images

 

Just as Joe Biden prepares to take over the presidency, the pharmaceutical industry is having its best political moment in years. Numerous Covid-19 vaccines are on the verge of approval, promising an (eventual) end to the pandemic that has upended every American’s life for the last nine months.

Reducing prescription drug costs has long been a top priority for voters. But given the prospect of a divided government, the other health care issues likely to dominate the Biden administration’s attention, and pharma’s renewed political clout, lobbyists and health care experts are skeptical there will be significant action to rein in drug costs over the next few years.

“Now that it’s looking like we’ll have successful vaccines, drug companies could come out of this pandemic as heroes that saved us from the evil virus,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told me. “That will make it harder to demonize the pharmaceutical industry in a fight over drug pricing.”

There are two kinds of drug pricing problems. One is the actual list prices set by drug companies, which most patients and health systems don’t actually pay, but still set the top line from which various discounts and rebates are applied. (And for the uninsured, that is their price unless they get some kind of assistance.) List prices are more difficult to control, without the more aggressive kind of price-setting that pharma and many lawmakers would balk at. The other issue is out-of-pocket costs, or what patients must pay under their insurance plan. That may be easier to fix; it’s just a matter of finding the money to improve, for example, the Medicare drug benefit so patients have smaller obligations when they fill a prescription.

There could be an opportunity for incremental improvements through Congress. A bipartisan Senate bill would serve as an obvious template for a compromise, if the Senate remains in Republican hands and with Democrats holding onto the House.

As one health care lobbyist told me, lawmakers are cognizant that after years of fierce partisan divisions that have stymied even small-bore improvements to US health care, “the voting public needs to see points on the board.”

But any legislating could still be difficult, as even small coalitions in the House and the Senate can make it hard for bills to move forward, and pharma still wields tremendous influence within the US Capitol.

As for President-elect Biden’s regulatory agenda, he will have to decide how much to prioritize drug pricing alongside improving Obamacare and reversing some of Trump’s actions on Medicaid. Pharmaceuticals are one area where the Trump administration has been more creative, but they also have failed to actually put many of their proposals in place. Biden could, in theory, pick up and build on some of the Trump initiatives. But many experts are skeptical he will.

Health care activists are still pushing for big changes. The US public still wants drug affordability addressed. But the context of the debate has shifted. On top of the vaccine news, drug prices have not been rising as quickly as in previous years, and the headline-grabbing price gouging appears to have subsided from the days when Martin Shkreli was briefly the face of the industry.

Taken together, experts have lowered their expectations about significant reforms happening any time soon, even though many Americans are still struggling to afford the medications they need.

“I think now, you don’t have all those stories about insulin and Epipen, plus you have positive stories about vaccines and other drugs,” Walid Gellad, director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing at the University of Pittsburgh, says. “You don’t have as fertile an environment for more extreme drug measures.”

There could be targeted action in Congress if everybody gets on board

A bipartisan bill introduced last year by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) and passed out of the Senate Finance Committee could be the initial template for drug pricing legislation under the Biden administration. As the lobbyist told me, if Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats can agree on a plan, that will put intense pressure on the House to come to an agreement.

The bill would penalize drug companies for any price hikes that are higher than inflation, requiring them to pay rebates to the Medicare program to make up the difference. For patients, the Finance Committee’s legislation would also redesign Medicare Part D benefits and cap patients’ out-of-pocket obligations at no more than $3,100 a year (and many would pay far less than that). The Congressional Budget Office projected that the bill would save beneficiaries a combined $20 billion over 10 years.

Both of those provisions are shared in concept, if not in all the details, with the major drug pricing bill passed by House Democrats in 2019, indicating they would represent a common ground between the two chambers if Republicans retain control of the Senate.

The Senate Finance bill didn’t get past the committee stage, partly because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was unenthused and President Donald Trump did little to apply pressure on reticent Republicans. Biden could try to use his bully pulpit to get a deal done.

The legislation “just lacked the push from the president,” Gellad said. Under Biden, “I think you might actually see a push from the president.”

Other policies cracking down on anti-competitive practices by drug makers have earned support from lawmakers in both parties. For example, a bipartisan Senate bill from Grassley and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and a plan sponsored by a group of House Republicans would bar brand-name manufacturers from making “pay for delay” payments to generic drug companies. Those arrangements currently can push back the introduction of generic competitors — one of the main tools in the US health system for limiting drug prices after the monopolies granted to new drugs expire — for months or more.

But more direct negotiations between Medicare and drug companies, a popular campaign talking point for Biden and other Democrats, are likely off the table unless Democrats can win both Georgia Senate runoffs, and with them a narrow Senate majority. Republicans not named Donald Trump have never warmed to the idea.

The health care lobbyist told me that a deal agreed to by Biden, McConnell, and Senate Democrats should be able to get through the House, too, even if the left and right wings balk.

“Pelosi can’t say no. McCarthy can’t say no,” the lobbyist said. “They can bring enough of their guys.”

Biden will have to decide whether to press on with any of Trump’s executive actions

The Trump health department has been busy on drug prices. They’ve authorized drug importation from other countries and released a bevy of proposals to bring American drug prices more in line with other countries.

The trouble has been in their lack of follow-through, which means the Biden administration will largely be left to decide whether to pick up Trump’s policies and run with them or start from scratch on their own.

But if nothing else, Trump’s aggressive posture toward the pharma industry may give Biden more leeway to be ambitious during his own presidency.

“Despite the Trump Administration’s failure to implement its most ambitious drug pricing policy goals, the administration’s rhetoric has been successful in normalizing and making the case for these bold reforms,” Rachel Sachs, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote in Health Affairs shortly after the election.

International reference pricing has been the calling card of Trump’s agenda, though his administration’s attempt to finalize it has been done in a legally shoddy, last-minute way that experts think leaves it vulnerable to the legal challenges already filed by the drug industry. In brief, under this “most favored nation” proposal, Medicare would not pay a higher price for drugs than other similarly wealthy countries do.

Sachs suggested in her article that Biden’s team could reevaluate the referencing pricing model, but refine it to make it less administratively complex. They could also shift the focus from automatic price controls to an independent review board that would take the foreign prices into account while setting its own recommended prices for Medicare.

Biden could also revisit the Obama administration’s plan to change how Medicare pays physicians for certain drugs, which was introduced too late to be fully implemented before Obama and Biden left office, Levitt said.

The federal government theoretically has expansive powers to try to curb drug prices. Progressives argue the federal government could use existing authorities to effectively revoke patents issued to drug makers if their medicines were developed through substantial public investment. It is an idea with a lot of purchase on the left and something even Biden’s newly announced nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, has sounded receptive to under certain circumstances.

Activists argue that the urgency of reducing drug costs for Americans has become only more apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic, even if pharmaceutical companies try to use their success with vaccines to their political advantage.

“If there is anything that this pandemic should have taught us, it’s that something should be done. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to think it’s not possible,” Dana Brown, who promotes drug pricing reform for the Democracy Collaborative, told me. “Can we literally afford the status quo? For me, the answer is no.”

Progressives will try to keep the pressure on Biden to go big. But there is a belief among savvy DC observers that drug pricing may be crowded out by other health care priorities. As Rob Smith, an analyst at the investment advisory firm Capital Alpha, wrote in a note in the days after the election: “We think drug pricing will fall to a third or fourth tier issue for the next administration.”

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Army Corps of Engineers issues Enbridge permit for $2.6B pipeline across northern Minnesota

Star Tribune

Army Corps of Engineers issues Enbridge permit for $2.6B pipeline across northern Minnesota

The permit is last big hurdle for the construction project, which will be one of largest in recent history for Minnesota.
By Mike Hughlett, Star Tribune                 November 24, 2020

The Corps decision paves the way for Calgary-based Enbridge to begin building the pipeline as early as next month. It will be one of the largest Minnesota construction projects in recent history and is expected to employ 4,000 workers.

“This decision is based on balancing development with protecting the environment,” Col. Karl Jansen, St Paul District commander, said in a statement. “Our decision follows an exhaustive review of the application and the potential impacts associated with the construction of the pipeline within federally protected waters.”

The Corps’ blessing was expected after the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) this month approved related construction permits for the pipeline, a replacement for Enbridge’s current Line 3.

The federal permit, issued by the Army Corps’ St. Paul district, covers construction impacts to myriad water bodies in Minnesota. The pipeline will ferry heavy Canadian oil across northern Minnesota to Enbridge’s terminal in Superior, Wis.

The 340-mile new pipeline will cross 212 streams and will affect more than 700 acres of wetlands in Minnesota — the reason many environmental groups have fought the project throughout the regulatory process.

“Enbridge has now received all remaining federal permits required for replacing Line 3, an essential maintenance project,” the Calgary-based company said in a statement.

The MPCA must still grant a stormwater drainage permit to Enbridge, a more routine approval that’s expected in the coming weeks. Enbridge is also waiting on a final construction authorization from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which already has approved the project.

“We are prepared to start construction as soon as these are in hand,” Enbridge said.

The Army Corps was waiting for the MPCA to act on the more sweeping pollution permits before making its decision. The MPCA two weeks ago granted water quality permits related to Line 3 construction.

The pipeline has been winding through the Minnesota regulatory process for six years. The PUC, the state’s primary regulator of pipelines, approved the pipeline in February for the second time after a court sent it back to the panel for changes in the project’s environmental impact statement.

Environmental groups and Indian bands opposing Line 3 have already appealed the PUC’s decision to a state appellate court, and petitions to overturn the Corps’ permits may be in the offing, too.

“It’s tragic but it’s not a surprise that the Trump administration would approve these permits regardless of the water quality impacts from the pipeline, and during a time when a pandemic is sweeping across the North Country with workers already here,” Winona LaDuke, head of Indigenous environmental group Honor the Earth, said in a statement. “The tribes and others will surely sue and we will see them in court.”

Environmental groups and some Indian bands have said the pipeline — which follows a new route — will open a new region of pristine waters to the prospect of oil spills, as well as exacerbate climate change by allowing for more oil production.

Enbridge has said the new pipeline is a critical safety enhancement. The current Line 3 is so corroded it’s running at only half capacity. The new pipeline would restore full oil flow.

Jansen said the Army Corps staff consulted all parties on Line 3, working “deliberately and extensively with our federal and state partners, federally recognized tribes, environmental organizations and the applicant.”

Mike Hughlett covers energy and other topics for the Star Tribune, where he has worked since 2010. Before that he was a reporter at newspapers in Chicago, St. Paul, New Orleans and Duluth.

Meet the South Poll cow: the healthier, naturally raised cattle of the future?

Meet the South Poll cow: the healthier, naturally raised cattle of the future?

Georgie Smith                      November 25, 2020

 

Missouri rancher Greg Judy spots a six-month-old South Poll heifer calf in his herd that is a prime example of what he calls a “good doing cow”. A cow that will “do good” on grass alone.

Related: ‘In the sun they’d cook’: is the US south-west getting too hot for farm animals?

She’s got a “big butt”, Judy says, meaning wide hips that will help her easily bear calves when grown. She sports a shiny, slick red hide that flies avoid landing on; cows stressed from fly bites – Judy has seen hundreds on a single cow – don’t grow well. She has a large “barrel” or gut, meaning enough stomach capacity to store large amounts of grass, which she will convert to energy and will keep her in good health, even during the winter with no extra feed. “This is the kind of heifer you want,” Judy says. “You can build a herd out of those.”

Judy raises cattle in a highly–managed, grass-only system that he believes is better for his cows and the environment. His 300-plus herd is kept together in a dense group, and moved often – Judy moves his cattle twice a day to fresh paddocks – creating a symbiotic relationship between cows and grasslands that soil scientists are finding encourages soil health and rapid grass growth.

But Judy has learned not all cows thrive on grass alone, especially the type of cattle favored by a US ranching industry that has grown largely dependent on feeding cattle grain rations.

In Judy’s system, those “common cows”, as he calls them, looked like they had been starved six months after he put them on a grass-only diet. Instead, Judy found success – after nearly going bankrupt in 1999 trying to raise cattle the conventional way – utilizing intensive, grass-based management with cows that had the “grass genetics” to thrive.

“At the end of the day, the money comes from animals that can excel on a grass diet,” says Judy, referring to the lower costs of raising cattle with a genetic predisposition to thrive on grass, since they don’t require the grain, growth hormones and antibiotics often used in traditional cattle ranching.

It’s a counterintuitive problem, considering cows evolved to eat grass. But today, approximately 97% of US beef cows spend the last four to six months in confined feedlots where they are fed grain rations until slaughter. Before that, they spend most of their lives out on the pasture, but even then some ranchers feed them grain to keep their weight up through winter or during stressful times like calving.

Meanwhile, the grass-only beef market is small, but growing rapidly, according to a report by Stone Barns Center. The intensively managed grazing Judy employs is a supercharged version of traditional cattle-grazing techniques. By moving his cows often, they do not have a chance to damage the grass by eating it too short. Instead, they encourage healthy root development increasing soil health, which some scientists have found allows the soil to capture and store carbon from the atmosphere – a process known as carbon sequestration.

This heavily managed grazing style – also called holistic grazing – is part of a growing worldwide interest in “regenerative agriculture”. By promoting multiple practices that build soil health, regenerative agriculture has been said to improve agricultural lands and ultimately sequester carbon, according to Rattan Lal PhD, an Ohio State University soil scientist and the 2020 World Food Prize winner.

But the growth of regenerative grazing systems has been slow, in part because, as the cattle industry turned to feeding grain, ranchers ended up breeding fewer cows that could thrive on grass alone, says Richard Teague PhD, a range ecologist with the Texas A&M University Agrilife Research center. Ranchers like Judy were put in a pickle, without the cows appropriate for their grass-only systems.

“People wanted to feed corn, [so] they bred huge animals that require very big inputs of corn and also pharmaceuticals,” says Teague. He argues that raising “cattle like that” comes at the expense of the health of consumers – and the health of the soil that nurtures them. “We have to go to animals that we know thrive under good management.”

The traditional ranching industry denies the charge that grass-raised cows are better for the climate than their grain-fed product. In a 2017 study by Oklahoma State University researchers found that grain-fed cattle – with their shorter lifespans – resulted in a 18.5 to 67.5% lower carbon footprint compared with grass-finished beef.

Meanwhile, a 2017 report from the Food, Climate and Research Network challenged the idea that grass-fed beef can be good for the environment at all, saying there was no evidence that grazing cattle helps sequester carbon except under the most ideal conditions.

However, Teague argues, “It’s not the cow, it’s the how.” A 2015 study in Georgia of dairy cows in an intensively grazed system recorded eight tons of carbon sequestered per hectare annually. The intensive livestock grazing systems such as Judy uses are one of the best ways within agricultural systems to sequester carbon, according to Teague. “Under decent management, sequestration exceeds emissions, and the better the grazing management, the more it exceeds it.”

For Judy, it comes down to raising cattle in a system that works with nature instead of against it. But to do that, he also had to find the best cattle to thrive in his environment. For him, that perfect cow is the South Poll.

A relative newcomer to the beef cattle scene, the South Poll is a small-framed, stout, highly fertile red cow, well adapted to hot and humid conditions. It has good mothering instincts that have earned it the nickname the “southern mama cow”. The breed also has a rock star – or at least, country music star – cachet; it was originally developed in the 1990s by Teddy Gentry, the bass player for the country music group Alabama.

Judy is far from alone in his enthusiasm for this up-and-coming breed. In mid-September, South Poll cattle fans from all over the US showed up in Copan, Oklahoma, for the annual South Poll cattle auction. The cows are becoming increasingly popular with grass-focused ranchers – especially in the south-eastern and mid-western US where the cattle are best adapted – according to Ann Demerath, secretary of the South Poll Grass Cattle Association.

Some of the animals purchased at the auction may be cross-bred with other cattle breeds. Ranchers hope to use the South Poll genes to adapt their existing cattle to do better on a grass diet, Judy says. He advises ranchers to start by purchasing the “best South Poll bull you can afford” and breed it to the best females in their existing herd. Then, ranchers should select the best females from that generation and breed those with a South Poll sire – a technique called “line-breeding” that quickly focuses on desirable traits without risking genetic defects.

Judy also advises ranchers to cull – or remove – any animals that don’t fit their standards for health and disposition, even if they “look at you funny”, from their breeding stock. His mantra? “You’ll never have a herd any better than what you are willing to cull for.”

Relentlessly selecting for the best-adapted cows within his own system has allowed Judy to produce South Poll mother cows so well-adapted that they stay healthy through the winter. That means, unlike most ranchers, Judy can give the mothers more time with their calves during the winter, which gives those calves an extra boost of growth and leaves him with a stronger, bigger calf in the spring.

For Judy, that is the goal – a cow that needs nothing but well-managed grass, passing their health and wellbeing on to the next generation.

“The animals,” Judy says, “are just healthy.”

Alberta sees an energy transition ‘happen before our eyes’

Varcoe: Alberta sees an energy transition ‘happen before our eyes’

Chris Varcoe                                Nov 21, 2020

Chief Allan Adam, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. PHOTO BY NICK KENDRICK, GREENPLANET ENERGY ANALYTICS
For the 1,000 residents of Fort Chipewyan, it has already started to arrive.Earlier this week, the community officially announced the completion of a new solar project that will generate up to 25 per cent of its electricity needs.

The northern community isn’t connected to the province’s power grid; the nearest tie-in to Alberta’s electricity system is 150 kilometres away.

Solar energy will help reduce Fort Chipewyan’s reliance on diesel that can only be trucked in on an ice road during the winter.

“Knowing that we have a different option in place of diesel fuel, it’s quite exciting. The opportunities are there for jobs and a cleaner way of heating our community,” Blue Eyes Simpson, vice-president of the Fort Chipewyan Metis Association, said Thursday in an interview.

“We’ve shown the world things like this can happen, even in the smallest of communities.”

The project, a partnership involving ATCO Ltd. and Three Nations Energy (3NE) GP Inc., is noteworthy for a number of reasons. It’s the largest remote off-grid solar generating development in the country.Using solar power will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by cutting local diesel consumption each year by an estimated 800,000 litres.

A fuel truck drives down the winter ice road from Fort McMurray to Fort Chipewyan in Northern Alberta on February 4, 2015. The 200-km temporary road typically opens mid-December and closes mid-March depending on the weather. PHOTO BY RYAN JACKSON/POSTMEDIA

 

The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), Fort Chipewyan Metis Association and Mikisew Cree First Nation are joint partners in 3NE, which owns the 2,200-kW solar farm located near the community’s airport.

The $7.8-million project, which included funding from the province and Ottawa, will generate about $200,000 to $250,000 annually in revenues, said Jason Schulz, 3NE president and the ACFN’s director of strategic advisory services.

ATCO built a 600-kW solar farm last year that’s adjacent to the larger facility and both developments will feed the company’s 1.5 megawatt-hour battery storage system.

“It really was a way to help the community achieve their climate change goals … and have less trucks rolling diesel into the community,” said Melanie Bayley, ATCO’s senior vice-president.

“This time of year, there is not a lot of sunshine. But come the summer months, there’s a great deal of solar potential there.”

The project also speaks to the ongoing energy evolution and efforts in Alberta to decarbonize.

Several oilsands producers, including Cenovus Energy and Canadian Natural Resources, have set goals to achieve net-zero emissions in three decades.

The cost of renewable energy technology continues to drop. Alberta, with strong wind and solar resources, is attracting outside investment.“We certainly are seeing the energy transition happen before our eyes,” said Bayley.

Earlier this month, a report by International Energy Agency said wind, solar and other renewable sources will make up almost 90 per cent of the global increase in total power capacity this year.

“Solar … and onshore wind are already the cheapest ways of adding new electricity-generating plants in most countries today,” the report stated.

Canada’s first wind-energy instalment, built in 1993, is nestled in the Alberta Rockies overlooking Pincher Creek. PHOTO BY POSTMEDIA ARCHIVE

 

In Alberta, as coal-fired power generation is being phased out, much of it is being replaced by natural gas, which generates fewer emissions and can back up intermittent renewable supply.

A number of renewable energy projects are also moving ahead, including the largest solar development in the country.

The Travers Solar Project, southeast of Calgary in Vulcan County, will generate 465 megawatts (MW) of electricity from 1.5 million solar panels once it’s built.

Construction on the $750-million Travers project, which is being developed by Calgary-based Greengate Power Corp., is expected to start in the first half of next year, said CEO Dan Balaban.

He noted a push by companies to source their electricity needs from clean energy will drive future renewable expansion in Alberta, which has the only deregulated electricity market in Canada.

“The energy discussion has been way too polarized in his country. It’s been framed as oil and gas versus renewables and I really believe it is oil and gas — and renewables,” Balaban said.

“That said, there is an energy transition going on around the globe and … coming out of COVID, it seems like the global appetite for clean energy investment has just accelerated.”Battery storage projects are also starting to lift off in Alberta, with 10 proposed developments being advanced.

The new Windcharger battery storage project being development by TransAlta Corporation is seen near Pincher Creek. The project has been under development this year and will begin operating later this month. PHOTO BY PHOTO COURTESY TRANSALTA CORPORATION

 

Last month, TransAlta began commercial operations on its $14-million WindCharger project northeast of Pincher Creek, Alberta’s first utility-scale lithium-ion battery storage facility.

TD Asset Management announced in October its Greystone Infrastructure Fund has invested in the country’s biggest battery storage development, located in Alberta. It said the first of three 20 MW storage projects will be in service by next month.

There are other signs of changes underway, such as the launch this week of a new clean energy accelerator, training program and venture fund by Calgary-based Avatar Innovations Inc.

Kevin Krausert, former head of Beaver Drilling and now CEO of Avatar Innovations, said the downturn in the oilpatch has caused devastation in the industry.

Yet, the sector remains the economic engine of the province and there are opportunities to use Alberta’s energy expertise to expand in areas such as hydrogen, geothermal or developing emissions-reduction technology.

“It’s always been the story and the history of our industry and province to look at the challenges that face us and find opportunities,” Krausert said Friday.

“I wish I could go back to 2014 as well. It’s easier to solve the challenges in front of us and create opportunity than it is to figure out how to create a time machine.”There’s also another reality to keep in mind: independent forecasts show oil and gas will continue to be a major energy source for decades to come.

Last month, the IEA’s annual energy outlook report said under its base-case scenario, global demand for natural gas will rise by 30 per cent by 2040. Oil consumption is forecast to return to pre-pandemic levels of around 100-million barrels per day in five years and stabilize around 104-million barrels per day in two decades.

For Schulz, the solar project in Fort Chipewyan holds a lesson that is relevant for all Albertans during a period of change. Many forms of energy will be needed moving forward.

“You can still have your traditional fossil fuels because they play a role … but you can also embrace a rapidly evolving economic model presented by renewables,” he said.

“It’s a matter of embracing both.”

Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.

Another 1 million Americans entered poverty in the last few weeks as coronavirus pandemic drags on

Another 1 million Americans entered poverty in the last few weeks as coronavirus pandemic drags on

Poverty keeps growing  in the U.S. as COVID-19 cases reach record highs, forcing shutdowns, and the last of government support disappears this winter.

In October alone, 1 million more Americans fell below the poverty threshold, a study from the University of Chicago found. A total of 7 million Americans have entered poverty since May, with Black Americans falling into poverty in the greatest numbers.

That number is likely to grow as more relief provisions are set to expire at the end of this year and the chances for more stimulus before the next administration takes hold look grim.

“For a few months you can get by drawing down savings, borrowing from friends, not paying the electricity bills so quickly,” Bruce Meyer, a University of Chicago economist, told Yahoo Money. But “the longer the recession continues and the more people are below the poverty line, the more troubles people are going to face.”

‘This all goes back to structural racism’

Like many of the effects of this pandemic, poverty has affected some communities more than others. Around 3 million of the 7 million who entered poverty since May — or 43% — were Blacks. But Black Americans only make up 13% of the overall U.S. population.

Read more: Here’s what you need to know about unemployment benefits eligibility

“This all goes back to structural racism where there are barriers throughout the economy that limit economic opportunities for Black Americans,” Gbenga Ajilore, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress, a non-profit for public policy research and advocacy, told Yahoo Money. “Many policymakers and economists are talking about how the economy is doing better than what was expected, but that thought process completely ignores the plight of Black Americans.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 16: A view of a child as she stands in line with her family as Food Bank for New York City distributes turkeys and Thanksgiving fixings with support from Stop & Shop and WBLS' The Steve Harvey Morning Show on November 16, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Food Bank For New York City)

 

While the overall unemployment rate has fallen to 6.9% from its 14.7% peak in April, the Black unemployment rate is still at 10.8% after reaching 16.8% in May. The overall job market recovery is also slowing down, with an unexpected week-over-week rise  of 742,000 Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits last week.

Poverty also rose noticeably among children and people with a high school education or less.

“Until there’s a solution to the continued spread of the virus or a vaccine is widely distributed, we’re facing a bad labor market that is not going to solve this problem,” Meyer said.

‘We will see a more pronounced increase in deprivation’

Poverty in the U.S. unexpectedly declined at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, thanks largely to generous government support from the CARES Act. Since then, there has been no second round of checks, the extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits expired in July, and the extra $300 for jobless workers under the Lost Wages Assistance program expired in September.

An even bigger cliff is coming at the end of the year when the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs are set to expire. That will leave up to 12 million unemployed workers with no benefits at all, according to a report  from the Century Foundation.

(201112) -- NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2020 (Xinhua) -- People line up outside a food pantry in Brooklyn, New York, United States, on Nov. 12, 2020. The number of initial jobless claims in the United States fell to 709,000 last week, as the labor market continues to recover at a slowing pace, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) (Xinhua/Michael Nagle/Wang Ying via Getty Images)
People line up outside a food pantry in Brooklyn, New York, United States, on Nov. 12, 2020. (Photo by Xinhua/Michael Nagle/Wang Ying via Getty Images)

 

The combination of a slowly recovering job market and lack of more government relief will likely mean more financial hardships for Americans. While a big increase in poverty may not be immediate because it’s measured as cumulative income over the past year, deprivation will rise sharply while the poverty rate continues to increase slowly, according to Meyer.

“We will see a more pronounced increase in deprivation than poverty,” he said. “But people’s available money to pay for food and rent will drop sharply.”

Denitsa is a writer for Yahoo Finance and Cashay , a new personal finance website. 

One Writer’s End of Term List: 10 Things I Now Hate Because of Trump

One Writer’s End of Term List: 10 Things I Now Hate Because of Trump

Nell Scovell                      November 17, 2020

Sorting through old papers, I’ll sometimes come across a note signed by my mother. She’s been dead 15 years and the sight of her signature triggers a rush of emotions. Autographs are more than scratches on paper. They are a legal representation of a person. For 50 years, I’ve viewed signatures on a scale that ranged from “necessary” to “heartwarming.” It never occurred to me that I could hate a signature.

I hate Donald Trump’s signature. I hate it aesthetically with the odd peak at the end that makes it seem like he’s signing his family’s original surname, “Drumpf.” I also hate the cruel bills and executive orders that he has signed to ban Muslims, roll back environmental protections, and protect Confederate monuments.

This anger extends beyond his signature. Trump has taught me to hate things that never seemed worthy of hatred, items like:

1. The number “45.” There are no photos of John F. Kennedy wearing a football jersey with the number 35. Historians and journalist sometimes use Bush 41 and Bush 43 to distinguish the two, but most presidents aren’t recognized by their sequential number. Still, Trump has embraced “45,” putting it on his golf hat and embroidering it on his cuffs. Many elevators skip the “13th floor” because it’s considered bad luck. In the future, we will skip from 44 to 46.

Photo credit: Tasos Katopodis - Getty Images
Photo credit: Tasos Katopodis – Getty Images

 

2: The color orange. Orange still doesn’t rhyme with any words, but it’s now synonymous with Trump whose nicknames include Agent Orange, the Mango Mussolini, the Cheeto in Charge, and Tangerine Jesus. Orange is now off-color forever. Sorry Howard Johnson’s. Sorry Princeton.

3. “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.” Founded by the Ms. Foundation for Women, this day kicked off in 1993 and used to happen once a year in April. At the White House, every day is “Bring your daughter to work day” thanks to senior adviser and filler-enthusiast Ivanka Trump whose “work” drew eye rolls from world leaders and Christine Lagarde.

Photo credit: Drew Angerer - Getty Images
Photo credit: Drew Angerer – Getty Images

 

4. Words like “sir,” “hoax,” “sad,” and “huge.” How one man could ruin so many monosyllabic words is both sad and huge.

5. Phrases like “When you look at X…” or “When you think about it…” Trump uses these phrases as rhetorical tics, the filler between lies. I now cringe when I hear them. Even cliches that were already disliked—“It is what it is”—I now hate even more.

6. Escalators, stairs and ramps. Trump has issues with between-floor conveyances. He truly can make the most ordinary things seem weird.

Photo credit: Christopher Gregory - Getty Images
Photo credit: Christopher Gregory – Getty Images

 

7. Solar eclipses. I will always associate solar eclipses with Trump so it’s a good thing they don’t occur very often.

8. Mario Kart. In her book Full Disclosure, Stormy Daniels described Trump’s sexual apparatus: “It has a huge mushroom head. Like a toadstool… I lay there, annoyed that I was getting fucked by a guy with Yeti pubes and a dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart.” If you can hear “Mario Kart” and not envision Trump’s penis, I am jealous.

9. True story: Trump ruined my friend Susie’s vagina. After Trump won in 2016, my friend Susie’s cervix spasmed and required medical attention. Susie wasn’t alone. In an article for The Cut, Emily Gould concludes her story about Gawker with a visit to the gynecologist. Gould explains she first felt pain in the area of her reproductive organs after watching Trump steamroll Hillary Clinton in a debate. The doctor responds, “Yeah, I’m seeing a lot of this lately. Women who haven’t had problems in years coming back in. People have all kinds of different reactions to trauma.”

10. Flushing twice. On the occasions when I have needed to flush a toilet twice, I never thought about it. Now that Trump regularly brings up bathrooms and the need for multiple flushes, I think of him as I watch the waste swirl into the sewer. To be fair, of all the associations, this one makes the most sense.

South Dakota ER nurse recalls how dying coronavirus patients spend last minutes insisting virus isn’t real

Michigan governor seeks shutdown of Great Lakes oil pipeline

Michigan governor seeks shutdown of Great Lakes oil pipeline

John Flesher                              

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020, file photo provided by the Michigan Office of the Governor, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state during a speech in Lansing, Mich. Whitmer's office took legal action Friday to force the shutdown of Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline by revoking the easement that allows an underwater section to run through the Straits of Mackinac. (Michigan Office of the Governor via AP, File)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took legal action Friday to shut down a pipeline that carries oil beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes.

Whitmer’s office notified Canadian company Enbridge Inc. that it was revoking an easement granted 67 years ago to extend a roughly 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of the pipeline through the Straits of Mackinac. The revocation takes effect in 180 days, when the flow of oil must stop.

“Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “They have repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring structural problems that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk.

“Most importantly, Enbridge has imposed on the people of Michigan an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes that could devastate our economy and way of life.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit Friday to carry out Whitmer’s decision. Another pending case that Nessel filed last year targets the pipeline as a public nuisance.

Enbridge said there was “no credible basis” for Whitmer’s action.

“Line 5 remains safe, as envisioned by the 1953 Easement, and as recently validated by our federal safety regulator,” said Vern Yu, the company’s president for liquids pipelines.

Line 5 is part of Enbridge’s Lakehead network, which carries oil from western Canada to refineries in the U.S. and Ontario. The pipeline moves about 23 million gallons (87 million liters) daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, traversing parts of northern Michigan and Wisconsin.

The underwater section beneath the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, is divided into two pipes that are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter. Enbridge says they are in good condition and have never leaked.

Environmentalists say they’re vulnerable and that closing Line 5 should be part of a global effort to curb use of climate-warming fossil fuels.

“Line 5 remains exposed to uncontrollable and powerful forces, including exceptionally strong currents, lakebed scouring, new anchor and cable strikes and corrosion,” said Liz Kirkwood of For Love of Water.

Enbridge reached an agreement with then-Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, in 2018 to replace the underwater portion with a new pipe that would be housed in a tunnel to be drilled through bedrock beneath the straits.

The company is seeking state and federal permits for the $500 million project, which is not affected by Whitmer’s shutdown order.

Environmental activists, native tribes and some elected officials began pushing to decommission Line 5 after another Enbridge pipe spilled at least 843,000 gallons (3.2 million liters) of oil in the Kalamazoo River in southern Michigan in 2010.

Pressure grew as the company reported gaps in protective coating and installed supports when erosion opened wide spaces between sections of pipe and the lake bed.

An anchor dragged by a commercial tug and barge dented both pipes in April 2018. One of the pipeline supports was damaged this summer, apparently by a boat cable.

In a termination notice, Whitmer’s office said the easement should not have been granted in 1953. Placing the pipes beneath a busy shipping lane with no protective cover violated the state’s duty to protect the public’s interest in Great Lakes waters and bottomlands, the document said.

It referred to a Michigan Technological University report that said oil discharged in the straits could harm fish and foul hundreds of miles of beaches, dunes and wetlands.

The notice said Enbridge repeatedly violated a requirement that the pipelines rest on the lake bed or have other supports at least every 75 feet (22 meters). Spaces exceeding the threshold have been detected as far back as 1963 and most were never dealt with, it said.

Enbridge has repeatedly defended its operation of the pipeline, saying the coating gaps posed no serious threat. It has installed more than 120 supports to improve stability and stepped up patrols and other measures to prevent anchor strikes.

The company said shutting down Line 5 would cause shortages of crude oil for refineries in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and eastern Canada, as well as propane shortages in northern Michigan. It also would boost shipments of oil by rail or trucks, Enbridge said.

“Today’s move would kill jobs and increase fuel costs,” said Geno Alessandrini of the Michigan Laborers Union, which joined industry groups in criticizing Whitmer’s decision. “That’s the last thing Michigan needs as we work to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.”

Republican state Sen. Jim Stamas said the governor had sided with “environmental extremists” instead of “hardworking Northern Michigan families.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, a member of the Senate committee that oversees the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, endorsed Whitmer’s move and said he would work with officials “to swiftly evaluate alternatives to Line 5 while continuing to hold Enbridge accountable.”

‘What a mess’: Billionaire Charles Koch says he regrets fueling partisanship

‘What a mess’: Billionaire Charles Koch says he regrets fueling partisanship

Josh Marcus                          November 13, 2020
Charles Koch (Bo Rader/AP)
Charles Koch (Bo Rader/AP)

 

Charles Koch, the libertarian tycoon who helped funnel billions of dollars to conservative causes and politicians around the country, says the era of hyper-partisanship he helped create was a “mess.”

“Boy, did we screw up!” he writes in a forthcoming book, according to the Wall Street Journal. “What a mess!”

He also wrote that backing the Tea Party, a grassroots conservative movement advocating for low taxes and small government that challenged both Democrats and mainstream Republicans during the Obama years, did not pan out either.

“It seems to me the tea party was largely unsuccessful long-term, given that we’re coming off a Republican administration with the largest government spending in history,” he told the paper.

They are stunning admissions—or perhaps just canny post-Trump messaging—from an individual who is arguably the most influential person in US politics outside of the politicians themselves.

The Koch network of donors and organizations has funded numerous Republican political campaigns; helped nurture the Tea Party; backed advocacy groups and think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, and Americans for Prosperity; bankrolled climate change denialism across the country; and helped fund roughly 1000 faculty members at 200 universities.

They acted, in the words of one writer, as “a private political bank capable of bestowing unlimited amounts of money on favored candidates, and doing it with virtually no disclosure of its source,” thanks to the Citizens United decision and other rulings rolling back political spending limits from individuals and corporations.

In recent years, the Koch network has increasingly diverged from the Republican party of Donald Trump. It didn’t support his campaigns in 2016 or 2020, and Mr. Koch once compared the president’s Muslim ban to Nazi Germany.

And the president has no love lost for them either, thanks to public spats on issues like trade

In 2018, the Koch network announced it would begin supporting certain Democrats who aligned with their priorities, and the billionaire executive, 85, says he hopes to spend his final act in politics working on bipartisan solutions to issues like immigration and criminal-justice reform.

Despite the change in rhetoric, Koch Industries, the conglomerate responsible for Mr. Koch’s fortune, donated $2.8 million in 2020 to Republicans via its political action committee and employee donations, compared to $221,000 to Democrats.