Poverty Measures

Margaret Simms, Karina Fortuny, Marla McDaniel, and William Monson A product of the Low-Income Working Families project Issue Brief 2, August 2013  

This brief, part of a series on disconnected low-income men, examines their health insurance coverage and health status using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) with some additional information provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

This report, prepared by the Urban Institute, provides a thorough review of the literature on the extent of price variation across geographic areas, an assessment of the available indices to use to adjust the poverty guidelines for geographic price variation, and trial estimates of how geographically adjusted poverty guidelines would affect program eligibility and federal and state costs.