This article examines how the decentralization of safety net programs after welfare reform has led to growing inequality in benefit generosity and access across U.S. states.
Benefits Data Trust (BDT) is a nonprofit that connects people to public benefits through a streamlined, phone-based application system called Benefits Launch, which reduces redundant questions and speeds up the process for multiple programs. BDT's approach, supported by a custom-built rules engine, has facilitated over 800,000 benefit enrollments, helping secure over $9 billion for eligible households across seven states.
A research brief explaining how work requirements in programs like Medicaid and SNAP reduce coverage, increase administrative costs, and push eligible people deeper into poverty without improving employment outcomes.
This report examines how recent federal spending cuts and policy changes are shifting costs onto county governments, potentially burdening local budgets and services.
This blog explains how the Rural Health Transformation Program—established under H.R. 1—will channel $50 billion over five years to states to support rural health care, and outlines how states can apply, qualify, and deploy funds strategically.
Association of State and Territorial Health Offices (ASTHO)
This guide highlights approachable ideas for state and local public benefits agencies to improve applications, renewals, and correspondence. As outlined in this resource, even small improvements can be transformative for residents and caseworkers alike.
This report by EPIC investigates how automated decision-making (ADM) systems are used across Washington, D.C.’s public services and the resulting impacts on equity, privacy, and access to benefits.
Data provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity regarding benefit, program, and resource information for over 80 health and human services available to NYC residents in all eleven local law languages.
The article examines the effects of Arkansas’s Medicaid work requirements, finding substantial coverage losses and no significant increase in employment, compounded by widespread confusion among beneficiaries about the policy.
This report examines Georgia’s Medicaid demonstration testing work requirements—the only such active program in the nation—and provides detailed findings on administrative costs, implementation challenges, and federal oversight weaknesses.
