A study just released by the Alaska Center for Public Policy finds that a bill passed a year ago by the Alaska State Legislature will deny health insurance to over 1,000 low income Alaskan children each year in the forseeable future. SB 105 was projected to save the State approximately $7.4 million through fiscal year 2009 by denying coverage to thousands of children. However, at the same time, the resulting loss of federal matching dollars to the State of Alaska will likely be at least $15 million, and could be as high as $52 million. Health care providers will be impacted by the loss of revenues, and the demands on emergencies rooms and other health care providers for uncompensated care will escalate.

The study, "Denali KidCare: The Current State of SCHIP in Alaska," was authored by Ms. Lindsay Sanders, a graduate student in the Master of Public Health program at UAA, and an intern at the Alaska Center for Public Policy. A copy of the full study may be downloaded from the ACPP homepage.

Alaska's Lower-48 neighbor, the State of Washington, is the latest state to develop an official state website to assist residents with the importation of less expensive drugs from foreign countries. Rx Washington was established to "develop an evidence based prescription drug program to identify preferred drugs; make prescription drugs more affordable; and increase public awareness of the safe and cost- effective use of prescription drugs."

Perhaps the most interesting and useful drug importation site of all is I-SaveRx, a collaborative effort among the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. One unique aspect of the site is that it facilitates the importation of drugs from Canada, Ireland, and England. The site enables consumers to compare the prices of a wide range of prescription drugs in all three countries in order to save the most money. Another unique aspect of the site is that all states, including Alaska, have been invited to join with Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri to jointly sponsor I-SaveRx.

Policy research, like so many other kinds of research in the electronic era, results in the accumulation of large amounts of electronic data such as on-line articles, PDF files, e-mail exchanges, and so on. The next challenge, after accumulating this information, is to systematically store it for easy retrieval.

Net Snippets is a unique research tool that not only stores electronic files of all types in a hierarchical file system entirely designed by the researcher, but the software also automatically makes bibliographies and indexes of the collections. There are several versions of the software, with the basic version starting at $80, but there is a 50% discount for students and faculty.

Copernic Desktop Search searches your hard drive in fractions of a second for words or character-strings in the following types of files: Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, Acrobat PDFs, and all popular music, picture and video formats. CDS also searches your browser history, favorites, and contacts. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express, CDS will search all your e-mails. Copernic Desktop Search is a free download.

Finally, Furl and Spurl are worth a look. These are very similar services in terms of what they do, however, Spurl seems to have a more user-friendly, less commercial feel to it. The programs save any webpages found on the internet, onto the Furl or Spurl server--something like saving "favorites," except that the entire webpage is saved rather than just the address. Users have the option of making their collections available to others, and the program will introduce users to other users who appear to be saving similar collections. Take a look for yourself--it's a bit hard to explain in a short paragraph. Both programs are free, and supported by advertisements on the websites.

According to a summer press release from Governor Murkowski's office, "MSB 272, sponsored by the Senate Rules Committee (Sen. John Cowdery-Chair), requires the Division of Banking, Securities, and Corporations to regulate businesses that offer "payday" loans - short-term, high-interest cash advances that are secured by a post-dated personal check. To qualify for a license, an applicant must have a minimum of cash assets, pay a licensing fee, and post a bond. The bill also includes a number of restrictions, including a minimum loan term, maximum loan amount, and maximum origination fee that are aimed at protecting consumers."

This is an important bill because for the first time in Alaska's history, predatory payday lenders will be regulated. However, the bill continues to allow a charge of $15 per $100 borrowed. AARP and other organizations remain critical of this legislation because it continues to allow predatory lending in Alaska. Several organizations worked to defeat or modify this bill. The Alaska Catholic Conference, Alaska Legal Services, AkPIRG, and the Anchorage Housing Services Center, for example, worked on possible amendments that would allow a 30 day loan instead of 15 days as well as allowing partial repayments during the loan period.

The full text of SB 272 is available on Alaska's Bill Action and Status Inquiry System (BASIS). An excellent detailed introduction to the world of predatory lending is available on the Center for Responsible Lending website.

email: ldweiss@acpp.info

phone: 907.240.4141

web: http://www.acpp.info