Lifeline is an FCC program that helps make communications services more affordable for low-income consumers. Lifeline provides subscribers a discount on qualifying monthly telephone service, broadband Internet service, or bundled voice-broadband packages purchased from participating wireline or wireless providers. The discount helps ensure that low-income consumers can afford 21st century broadband and the access it provides to jobs, healthcare, and educational resources.
How Much Does The Obama Phone Program Cost
Link Up, another federal benefit program, is a one-time benefit, per address, that reduces the initial installation or activation fees of certain Lifeline providers offering telephone service on Tribal lands.
For low-income consumers living on Tribal lands, Lifeline provides a monthly discount of up to $34.25 off the cost of telephone service, broadband Internet service, or bundled services (either wireline or wireless). This discount consists of up to $9.25 (which is available to all eligible low-income subscribers across the United States) plus up to an additional $25 in enhanced support (which is available only to eligible low-income subscribers living on Tribal lands). Some states offer additional monthly discounts through their own Lifeline programs.
The FCC does not subsidize any hardware associated with the Lifeline program, which includes mobile phones provided by a service provider to a Lifeline customer. If you are having issues with your mobile phone or other hardware associated with your Lifeline service, please contact your service provider directly.
Lifeline Fraud Tip Line: 1-855-4LL-TIPS (or 1-855-455-8477) or Lifelinetips@fcc.gov. Please provide as much detail as possible, including your name and contact information and the company you are using to receive Lifeline-supported phone service.
Since 1985, the Lifeline program has provided a discount on phone service for qualifying low-income consumers to ensure that all Americans have the opportunities and security that phone service brings, including being able to connect to jobs, family and emergency services. Lifeline is part of the Universal Service Fund. The Lifeline program is available to eligible low-income consumers in every state, territory, commonwealth, and on Tribal lands.
A: No. Low-income households have been eligible for discounted telephone service for more than a decade. But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it.
The SafeLink program has actually been offering cell phones to low-income households in some states since 2008, not beginning "earlier this year," as the e-mail claims. But the program is rooted in a deeper history.
This informal practice was codified when the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) was created as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act to "ensure all Americans, including low-income consumers and those who live in rural, insular, high cost areas, shall have affordable service and [to] help to connect eligible schools, libraries, and rural health care providers to the global telecommunications network." The USAC includes four programs to serve rural areas, high cost areas, rural health care providers, and schools and libraries. Since 1997, USAC has provided discounted land line service to low-income individuals. (A more limited program to offer assistance to low-income individuals was created a decade earlier; the telecommunications act expanded and formalized it.) According to Eric Iversen, USAC director of external relations, the Universal Service Fund more recently began funding programs that provide wireless service, such as the pre-paid cellular SafeLink program mentioned in the chain e-mail.
The president has no direct impact on the program, and one could hardly call these devices "Obama Phones," as the e-mail author does. This specific program, SafeLink, started under President George Bush, with grants from an independent company created under President Bill Clinton, which was a legacy of an act passed under President Franklin Roosevelt, which was influenced by an agreement reached between telecommunications companies and the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.
Lifeline is a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) program. It helps individuals and families who have a low income get discounted landline or cell phone service. Some people also qualify for a free phone.
The cost of Basic insurance is shared between you and the Government. You pay 2/3 of the total cost and the Government pays 1/3. Your age does not affect the cost of Basic insurance. You pay the full cost of Optional insurance, and the cost depends on your age.
* Through a separate non-FCC initiative, additional no cost plans may be available to Affordable Connectivity Program enrollees. To learn more please visit GetInternet.gov. Provision of a link to this initiative does not imply FCC endorsement of any particular participating provider.
Study abroad program fees or summer tuition and fees will not be covered as part of the program. You may choose to spend one semester in an ASU-sponsored study abroad program, only after completion of your first year in the Obama Scholars Program. This will count as one semester toward the eight-semester maximum. Your funding will continue to be based on ASU cost of attendance and will not cover any study abroad program fees.
The Arizona Promise Program is a state grant program for Arizona residents that helps fill in the remaining tuition and fee costs not covered by your other gift aid (Pell Grant, merit scholarships, etc.). This can be awarded up to four years (eight consecutive semesters).
Deductibles are another health insurance-related cost. This refers to the amount of money you pay before your insurance company begins paying for a health-related service. This does not include free preventive services. Deductibles vary for each type of plan. The less you pay for a monthly premium, the more you pay for your deductible.
Obamacare refers to the law passed to expand health coverage across the United States, and Medicaid expansion was a big part of that law. Medicaid, in general, is an assistance program, while Obamacare is an actual insurance plan purchased from a company. Medicaid also covers people with a much lower income than those who receive tax subsidies through Obamacare. In addition, you can enroll in Medicaid throughout the entire year, while there is only a certain time frame for marketplace insurance.
Sadly, Lifeline Assistance no longer provides free cell phones alongside their discounted services. But you may find that some of the wireless providers offering free plans through the Lifeline program still offer a free cell phone or free SIM kit. Scroll down to see a list of those providers below.
You won't find any major cell phone providers or new iPhone devices eligible for the Lifeline Assistance program, but that doesn't mean you can't get a decent phone on a reliable network. Some of these cell phone providers also offer free phones or free SIM kits as well. (Or you may be asked to pay a small $10 co-pay.)
FEDERAL PROGRAM: Project ACT is offering free, rapid, at-home COVID-19 test kits to residents of eligible communities while supplies last. Simply enter your ZIP code and see if you qualify for kits that will be mailed to your home. Click your eligibility here.STATE PROGRAM: The NC Department of Health and Human Services and LabCorp also have a program to request no-cost, at-home testing kits for $0. These are PCR tests that must be mailed back to a lab in a postage-paid envelope. USE THIS NCDHHS LINK to make a request.
Outdoor COVID-19 testing is also extremely expensive, and keeping sites staffed eight hours a day, six days a week is a challenge. In total, Wake County has spent $131 million dollars since the start of the testing program and, at times, was forced to supplement vendor staffing with county staffing. Federal COVID-19 funding is almost gone. To continue drive-thru testing would come at a cost of $2 million a month to local taxpayers.
The cost to access a single document is capped at $3.00, the equivalent of 30 pages for documents and case-specific reports like docket report, creditor listing, and claims register. The cap does not apply to name search results, reports that are not case-specific, and transcripts of federal court proceedings.
Be careful to watch for scammers that falsely use HHS symbols and language to trick you and others. Fraudsters in the past have used the words and letters of HHS programs to give the false impression that their costly seminars or pay-per-use grant application tools are approved, endorsed, or authorized by HHS. HHS never endorses or uses private companies or individuals for these purposes.
Internet access is now necessary for work, school, healthcare, and more. However, for many households, it remains unaffordable. The Federal Communications Commission wants everyone to access reasonably priced internet services. We recently launched a new program to reduce the cost of getting online.
This program will affect only long-term care services and supports you receive after the age of 55, and only if you first applied for these services after March 1, 2005. If you applied for these services before March 1, 2005, MERP does not affect you.
While estimates vary widely, evidence suggests that shutdowns tend to cost, not save, money for several reasons. For one, putting contingency plans in place has a real cost. In addition, many user fees and other charges are not collected during a shutdown, and federal contractors sometimes include premiums in their bids to account for uncertainty in being paid. While many federal employees are forced to be idle during a shutdown, they have historically received and are now guaranteed back pay, negating much of those potential savings. OMB official estimates of the 2013 government shutdown found that $2.5 billion of pay and benefits were paid to furloughed employees for hours not worked during the shutdown, as well as roughly $10 million of penalty interest payments and lost fee collections. 2ff7e9595c
Comments