“A lot of the people who lost coverage were working or eligible for an exemption, but the red tape was so bad that they couldn’t navigate it,” says Nari Rhee, director of the Retirement Security Program at the University of California Berkeley Labor Center.
The government uses tax breaks to encourage saving, with bigger deductions for bigger contributions (up to caps set by the IRS). That steers the biggest benefit to higher earners who can most afford to save, Rhee says. “We need to restructure the subsidies so that more of the tax benefits go towards low-income households that actually need the help.”
“Black workers are concentrated in lower-wage jobs, often in the service sector, often with high turnover, where employers just don’t offer the benefits. Or maybe [workers] never get to stick around long enough to be able to qualify for benefits, including participating in a retirement plan,” says Nari Rhee.
A University of California, Berkeley, Labor Center analysis shows that setting aside 90 days’ worth of PPE per 1 million health care workers would cost $50 million, although advocates point out that it would save lives and lead to lower treatment costs.
