New America in California: Policy Papers

The Problem. Recent elections underscore the importance of improving the way we register citizens to vote. Our voter rolls are not complete enough, with nearly a third of eligible Californians -- about 6.7 million people -- not registered, a lower percentage than in 2001.This lack of civic participation is a threat to good governance and a healthy democracy. Current state law limits valuable opportunities for engaging more Californians in the electoral process.

California's strength flows from a willingness to innovate and improve upon the American experiment in democracy. Recent elections underscore the importance of revamping the way we register citizens to vote, with the twin goals of registering all eligible voters and decreasing opportunities for voter fraud. Voter rolls should be complete and clean.

Currently, there are two widespread failures. First, our voter rolls are not complete enough, with nearly a third of … more

Fear is a powerful force. Families fear the disappearance of affordable health insurance, employers fear international competition while financing high and rising health care costs at home, and providers fear that they will not be able to deliver needed care for lack of funding. In short, just about everyone fears that our system will fall apart. Instead of taking action, many politicians remain fearful of tackling health care reform, since it crushed the Clintons and others before them.

But hope… more

The New America Foundation is committed to achieving universal health insurance coverage for all people in America. The most promising route to universal coverage is a system that relies on shared responsibility among individuals, employers, and the government. To that end, the New America Foundation has released a series of three papers outlining how to cover all children in California as a first step towards universal coverage. This paper is a component of that series.

For the complete document, please see… more

Recent national research has shown that 85 million people lacked health insurance at some point over a four-year period.1 While some Americans are consistently uninsured, substantial numbers have intermittent coverage. Consider, for example, a family that is currently covered through a parent’s employment-based health insurance. A subsequent job loss could leave that family uninsured until another job with health insurance is secured, the family purchases a non-group health insurance policy, or the family is determined to be eligible for and… more

Health insurance is the gateway to health and to our health care system, yet over five million Californians are uninsured, about 800,000 of whom are children. Having health insurance facilitates access to affordable care from a network of health care providers and shields families from financial ruin in the case of a catastrophic medical emergency.

While most Californians have access to employment-based coverage, a growing number of people either work for firms that do not offer health insurance or cannot… more

What are asset-building policies?Asset building is about giving all Californians access to the government-sponsored financial tools and incentives that have created and sustained economic prosperity for higher-income families. Today, for example, the federal government spends over $300 billion per year to help individuals and families acquire assets through home mortgage deductions, tax incentives, business investments and retirement savings programs. There’s only one problem with these effective policies--more than 90 percent of that money goes to households already making over… more