The Feminization of Poverty

This morning, the National Journal’s Health Care Experts blog posed the following questions:

What early health care victories should President-elect Obama and Congress seek before Washington works on broad health care reform legislation? What health care measures should be included in an early economic stimulus package? Federal Medicaid help for cash-strapped states? Legislation to lower drug costs?

The first respondent, Drew Altman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, provides the following commentary:

“Federal relief for states provided in the form of additional federal Medicaid matching funds will… help women who will not benefit as much from other forms of stimulus spending such as spending for construction projects; women represent three quarters of adult Medicaid beneficiaries…”

What Drew is alluding to here, is the feminization of poverty, a concept to which I have had little prior exposure. There is a very good introduction to the topic, available here.