Latest news with #affordablecare
CBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CBC
New report finds B.C access to affordable child care worst in the country
A new report finds that B.C. is the worst-performing province when it comes to access to affordable child care spaces, with five of its cities topping the list for the most expensive median child care fees in the country. As CBC's Katie DeRosa reports, one Surrey mother says she feels like the province has abandoned its $10-a-day child care promise.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New child care options will translate to more than 600 new $10-a-day spaces, minister says
Some 27 early learning and child-care projects are expected to bring over 600 new $10-a-day child-care spaces to the Avalon Peninsula. Early Childhood Development Minister Bernard Davis said Friday the developments will bring the number of affordable child-care spaces to over 11,000 across Newfoundland and Labrador.
CBC
09-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Halifax has some of the highest child care costs in Canada, study finds
A new report says Halifax has some of the highest child care costs among major Canadian cities, a finding that advocates say risks forcing Nova Scotians — particularly women — out of the workforce. Released Wednesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the data says Halifax has the sixth most expensive child care fees out of 35 major Canadian cities. The median fee for daycare in Halifax was $24 a day per child as of April, according to the think tank's study, more expensive than fees in Toronto, Oakville, Ottawa and all other Atlantic cities studied. Five cities in British Columbia — Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver, Burnaby and Kelowna — ranked higher than Halifax, according to the report. Kenya Thompson, with Child Care Now Nova Scotia, said families in the province are struggling to find daycare they can afford, with many parents forced to leave their jobs to care for children. "I hear so many stories of folks whose employment has been significantly disrupted," she said. Thompson said the provincial government needs to significantly invest in child care to subsidize fees and ensure parents with young children remain in the workforce. "If you don't have child care, it has huge implications for your employment, and frankly it's a gendered issue," she said in an interview Wednesday. "Women, moms are the ones who are taking time off and have to try to juggle all these different responsibilities." The report examined the progress provinces and territories are making on hitting the federal government's target of having regulated child care cost an average of $10 a day by 2026. In 2021, the federal Liberals budgeted $27 billion over five years to reach child care deals with all 13 provinces and territories. And while Ottawa succeeded in striking all 13 agreements — and even though fees have dropped significantly across the country since 2021 — the federal government is unlikely to meet its self-imposed deadline. "It's almost certain that even after the 2026 deadline passes, many parents in five provinces will be paying more than $10 a day for child care," said David Macdonald, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The report says just six provinces and territories — Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador — have met or improved upon the government's $10-a-day target. Five provinces — Ontario, Alberta, B.C., New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — do not yet have plans to reduce fees to an average of $10 a day, the report says. Paul Wozney, the Nova Scotia NDP's education and early childhood development critic, said in a statement Wednesday the think tank's report raises serious concerns about the province's ability to hit the federal target. "The daily child care cost for a preschool child in Halifax is just over $22 — meaning families here are paying more than twice what parents in cities like Winnipeg, Charlottetown, St. John's and Montreal pay," Wozney said. "That adds up to hundreds of dollars a month because the (provincial) government isn't taking action to deliver more affordable child care," he added. Thompson said that while the centre's report focused on major cities, previous research by the think tank and her advocacy group show that rural parts of Nova Scotia are also short on affordable child care spaces. "The reality of the province is that many folks live in rural and remote areas, and people cannot access child care where they live," she said. In July 2021, Nova Scotia became the second province to sign a child care deal with Ottawa, totalling $605 million to fund thousands of subsidized daycare spots. Nova Scotia agreed to use the money to create 9,500 new spaces by March 2026. Nova Scotia's Department of Education and Early Childhood Development did not immediately answer questions about Halifax's child care fees or say when it expects to make $10 a day a reality. Department spokesperson Krista Higdon noted that almost 7,000 new child care spaces have been created since 2021.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Community Roundtable in Arizona Exposes Real-Life Consequences of Losing Health Premium Federal Tax Credits
TUCSON, Ariz., June 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- UnidosUS, the nation's largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, launched a campaign to protect the federal Enhanced Premium Tax Credits (EPTCs), which are set to expire at the end of this year, and hosted a roundtable to encourage attendees to help expand the campaign's reach. As part of the initiative, community members were invited to sign a petition at to show their support for keeping health insurance affordable. Speakers urged participants to share the petition within their networks, highlighting that every signature helps elevate the voices of Arizonans who rely on these federal tax credits to access essential care and maintain financial stability. During the event, held at the Community Foundation Campus in Tucson, panelists discussed how the elimination of these federal tax subsidies could affect more than 300,000 people in Arizona — including thousands of Latino families — who currently rely on the EPTCs to keep their health coverage affordable through The roundtable brought together community leaders, public health experts and local government representatives and more than 40 attendees to discuss the potential consequences of the expiration of Enhanced Premium Tax Credits (EPTCs) in Arizona. "The conversations at today's roundtable made one thing clear: the potential elimination of these health tax credits is an alarming threat to 300,000 Arizonans," stated Carmen Feliciano, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at UnidosUS. "For a family earning around $30,000 a year, the estimated annual premiums could increase between $3,000 and $4,000, and this could put health coverage out of reach for working families across the state. That's a crisis we can't afford to ignore." "This isn't about politics— it's about people's lives," added Monica Sandschafer, Arizona State Director, Mi Familia en Acción. "These tax credits have helped working families stay healthy, afford their medications and get the care they need without falling into financial hardship." "The success of this event — and the strong response to the petition — shows that Arizona's communities are coming together with urgency and determination to protect access to affordable health care," said Enrique Davis-Mazlum, Arizona State Director of Policy and Advocacy at UnidosUS. "This is just the first step in a long-term strategy to ensure our communities don't lose critical protections." This dialogue is part of UnidosUS's 2025 strategy to protect and expand health and economic security for working families, including Latino communities. In Arizona and across the country, the organization will continue creating spaces for conversation and action — ensuring that public policies reflect the realities and needs of the people who rely on them most. View original content: SOURCE Unidos US
Forbes
10-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Helping Small Businesses Find Better Health Insurance Options
American businesses are struggling with health insurance options. Year over year, premium costs grow at rates in the high single digits – with some markets facing even steeper growth. Administrative complexity, denials of care and information gaps are increasingly commonplace. The standard fully insured products offered to small businesses – who employ about half of the U.S. workforce – are increasingly causing financial hardship and frustration among workers. Employers are limited in their ability to influence market dynamics in a way that would materially change or innovate insurance design. This is particularly true for small businesses who often feel trapped in a cycle of rising costs and limited affordable options. For example, if a hospital raises commercial rates because factors like increased labor costs, reductions in Medicaid eligibility or the need to invest in better technology, a small business leader has little recourse other than to drop the product. Yet offering health benefits is a central part of a company's culture and growth strategy. Consider a small business owner with about 10 employees. They care about the people working for them – as staff in a small business are typically seen as family. In addition, small businesses need to provide health insurance to attract the best talent, and this will continue to be the case in the future. Bringing more affordable, flexible benefit options needs to be a priority for all of us working in health care. As our team at Morgan Health has convened small businesses over the past year, we consistently hear that leaders seek more control over health insurance costs, and that they want to offer employees choice in selecting their own health plan. Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements offer a solution in many markets. ICHRAs (for short) were first introduced in 2020 – enabling employers to offer their employees a tax-free allowance to purchase health insurance plans on the individual marketplace. Small businesses represent the main cohort of ICHRA adopters to date. We expect this trend to continue. Based on early data and use cases, there is a business imperative to further scale and build upon this model. ICHRAs offer several advantages, including: ICHRAs enable employers to provide health insurance to their employees through subsidies – meaning that their stability and sustainability is dependent on a strong, robust individual insurance marketplace. Given that ICHRAs have shown promise in supporting small businesses, policymakers will need to prioritize efforts that support broader implementation. These priorities should include codifying the federal regulations that allow for the ICHRA offering, as well as policies that promote greater flexibility for employers and employees and reduce administrative burdens for employers who choose ICHRAs. In turn, this would expand health coverage and access across the U.S. – ensuring more Americans are enrolled in coverage that supports their health care needs and financial risk tolerance. It's commonly said that small businesses are the bedrock of the U.S. economy. Less acknowledged is the pivotal role of small business in supporting the US healthcare system. Health care stakeholders across the spectrum would be well served to support the needs of small business for quality and affordability, and to enable innovative models that deliver better options going forward. Growing ICHRA as an option for coverage can be a key element in this effort.
