Our Mission: Explaining and Reducing Poverty in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
Community Advocates’ Public Policy Institute has clear and simple goals: To explain why so many Milwaukeeans are poor, and to develop and implement a practical strategy to reduce poverty throughout Wisconsin.
PPI Poverty Plan Aims to Cut Poverty in Half
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently featured PPI's four-part plan to cut poverty in half. David Riemer and PPI's Economic Policy Analyst, Conor Williams, have worked with the Urban Institute on a policy package that would take Wisconsin's poverty rate from 8% down to 4.3%. Riemer also discussed the plan on Wisconsin Public Radio. A summary of the findings was recently presented to the 2011 National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics annual workshop.
Statement to Joint Committee on Finance
Any plan to cut costs in Medicaid must not impair Medicaid eligibility, diminish Medicaid benefits, or reduce the affordability of Medicaid in Wisconsin. Medicaid is crucial to the health and productivity of hundreds of thousands of working families in every county in the state. Any reduction in access to the low-cost, high-quality health insurance Medicaid provides will have a real effect on real people: children will die and parents will get sick as the number of uninsured rises and people who urgently need health care put off treatment.
Read David Riemer's full statement to the Wisconsin Joint Committee on Finance regarding cost savings in Medicaid Wednesday, Nov. 9.
A role for government in combating poverty
The simple and troubling fact is that poverty and unemployment kill babies. The primary responsibility for reducing poverty and unemployment lies with the federal government, which it has sought to fulfill through a wide array of programs. But while federal policies have brought about major reductions in poverty and unemployment in the U.S., they are still inadequate to drive down poverty and unemployment to low single digits—the level needed to improve infant mortality and narrow disparities. Read David R. Riemer's full Milwaukee Journal Sentinel op-ed here.
New Project Seeks to Harness Potential of Health Exchanges
The Public Policy Institute has launched the Project for Health Insurance Exchange Education (PHIXE).
A central goal of PHIXE is to educate state policymakers about
how a properly structured exchange—the health insurance marketplace established by the federal Affordable Care
Act—can enable market forces to put
strong and enduring pressure on health care insurers and providers to
lower costs and enhance quality.
Another project goal is to help policymakers understand how exchanges can improve addiction treatment by adopting smart enrollment procedures for state parolees, creating a sound relationship between Medicaid and the exchange, and rethinking the interaction between insurance and stand-alone treatment programs.
Recent links:
- In this article for "Audacious Ideas," a publication of the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, David Riemer, PPI Director, details the three criteria necessary for health exchanges to lower health care costs.
- Riemer discusses health care exchanges with WUWM's Lake Effect (aired Oct. 7).
- In comments provided to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Public Policy Institute notes that health exchanges should allow insurers to sell qualified health plans in any county or region of the state that they wish to. This approach to increasing competition is a key to driving down health care costs and insurance premiums.
Riemer Discusses Making Parity Real on Lake Effect
David Riemer, Public Policy Institute Director, discussed the Making Parity Real series with Stephanie Lecci of WUWM's Lake Effect. Listen to the interview, which aired Aug. 24, here.
Media Center
For all press inquiries, news releases and PPI in the Media, click here.
Read the 2010 Public Policy Institute year-end report.
PPI's Walczak Discusses Criminal Justice on Fourth Street Forum
Marilyn Walczak, Public Policy Institute Community Justice Project Manager, appeared on the Oct. 14 episode of Milwaukee Public Television's Fourth Street Forum to discuss strategies to reduce Wisconsin’s high corrections budget and cut crime. Watch the episode here.
Riemer: We Can Drive Poverty Under 5%
In a recent Op-Ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, David Riemer argues that we haven't lost the “war on poverty.” Poverty—for seniors, for children and for workers—would be dramatically worse but for the impact of a cluster of long-standing, popular federal programs. In fact, with a simple “package” of federal policies, we can drive poverty down from today's levels to a residual rate of under 5%. Read the full Op-Ed.
Swift, Decisive Government Action Can Reduce Poverty
The United States government must move quickly to reduce the nation’s deepening slide into poverty by enacting policies that could cut poverty in half. Chief among them is creating a national Transitional Jobs Program that gets the unemployed working.
“The time for swift, decisive federal action is now,” said David R. Riemer, Director of the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute. “The U.S. Census Bureau figures underscore the inadequacies of our current anti-poverty programs. Transitional Jobs—wage-paying jobs that allow low-income, unemployed men and women to do useful work and support themselves and their families—should be at the forefront of any effort to reduce poverty.”
Read the full news release here.
Our Projects
- We seek to create Transitional Jobs to help unemployed Wisconsin residents return to the workforce.
- Project for Health Insurance Exchange Education (PHIXE) seeks to harness the potential of state health insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act.
- The Milwaukee Addiction Treatment Initiative (MATI) works to increase funding for addiction treatment and improve the delivery of addiction treatment services.
- The Mental Health Policy Initiative aims to improve state and local policies for individuals suffering from mental illness.
- The Community Justice Project aims to strengthen the quality and efficiency of the criminal justice system, both in Milwaukee County and statewide.
- The Tobacco Prevention & Control Program help to implement the Wisconsin Smoke Free Act in Milwaukee, a new law prohibiting smoking in workplaces.
- The Milwaukee Brighter Futures Initiative seeks strategies to prevent and reduce child abuse and neglect, youth violence and delinquent behavior, youth alcohol and other drug use and abuse, and non-marital pregnancy.
- Pathways to Ending Poverty seeks to change the way we think about poverty, and develop and implement a specific package of policies to lower Wisconsin's poverty rate to low single digits.
- The Internship and Fellowship Program provides an active and substantive role in research, communications and advocacy projects that support the goals of the Institute.
Join the Milwaukee Smoke-Free Alliance
The Milwaukee Smoke-Free Alliance is a coalition of local advocates working together for a healthier, safer, smoke-free Milwaukee. In 2011 the Alliance will advocate for tobacco-free policies, work to reduce youth access to tobacco and ensure that Milwaukee stays smoke-free. Join today.
