Hawaii’s welfare numbers rising for first time in decade, By Mary Vorsino, December 27, 2009, Honolulu Advertiser: “For the first time in a decade, the number of Hawai’i families receiving state- or federally funded cash benefits is up from the year before as the economic crisis hits the state’s poorest in what advocates say illustrates the scope of need in the community. Advocates also worry more increases are still to come. This year, the average welfare caseload in the Islands increased by about 4 percent compared with 2008 – or by about 300 families. ‘This is the safety net,’ said Debbie Shimizu, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers-Hawai’i, adding, ‘This group is probably going to get bigger…'”
Welfare program for jobless on rise, By Sara Gavin, December 28, 2009, Charleston Daily Mail: “After declining steadily for the past decade, temporary welfare payments from the state to families who have exhausted all other benefits are on the rise again. WV WORKS, administered by the Department of Health and Human Resources, was restructured in 1997 to provide temporary assistance to families who have exhausted other benefit avenues. The program initially carried a caseload of nearly 38,000. It is part of the larger cash assistance program known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. WV Works cases had been declining steadily over the past decade, bottoming out at about 9,000 statewide. But over the past 18 months officials have seen a steady uptick of about 1,800 additional cases, bringing the new total to almost 11,000 in West Virginia…”
States with expanded health coverage fight bill, By Kate Zernike, December 26, 2009, New York Times: “States that have already broadly expanded health care coverage are pushing back against the Senate overhaul bill, arguing that it unfairly penalizes them in favor of states that have done little or nothing to extend benefits to the uninsured. With tax revenues down and budgets breaking, the states – including Arizona, California, New Jersey, New York and Wisconsin – say they cannot afford to essentially subsidize other states’ expansion of health care. The bill passed by the Senate on Thursday would move toward universal health insurance coverage in large part by expanding Medicaid, a program whose costs have traditionally been shared by the states and the federal government…”
Health-policy experts say there is little basis for Sen. Nelson’s concerns about Medicaid expansion, By Alec MacGillis, December 19, 2009, Washington Post: “Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the final Democratic holdout on health-care legislation, said Thursday he is concerned not only about the use of federal dollars for abortion coverage, but also about the impact that expanding Medicaid would have on the finances of his home state. A Medicaid expansion would ‘create an underfunded federal mandate for the state of Nebraska,’ Nelson told a Nebraska radio station. He said states should be permitted to ‘opt out’ of the expansion and find other means of covering low-income residents. But Nelson’s concerns have little basis, according to health-care policy experts. In fact, over the next decade, such an expansion could benefit Nebraska more than it would many other states…”
Utility bill is one more casualty of recession, By Erik Eckholm, December 19, 2009, New York Times: “For the Cardente family, the shutoff of their electricity and gas in September was a wrenching marker in a two-year downslide. A run of mishaps, including illness and the husband’s workplace injury, extensive structural damage from a burst water bed and the mother’s layoff from a nursing job, had already upended their middle-class lives. Then the pile of utility bills emerged as a headache to rival the past-due mortgage. ‘You always try to pay your mortgage or rent to keep a roof over your head,’ said Debra Cardente, the mother. ‘Then you ask, do you pay your electric or gas bill, pay your telephone or put food on the table?’ The recession has accentuated what was already a growing home-energy challenge for low-income and many middle-class households across the nation. Rising numbers have had their utilities shut off, causing desperate scrambles to pay arrears and penalties to get them restored…”
Government helps more Americans pay their heat bills, By Julie Schmit, December 18, 2009, USA Today: “More Americans are getting help to pay home heating bills, and more are likely to need help as the economy continues to struggle, says the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association. Almost 8 million U.S. households received federal government help to heat homes in fiscal year 2009, up 33% from the prior year, the association says. Applications for assistance in the current fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, are running even higher as more people join the ranks of the long-term unemployed, the association says. ‘It looks like 2010 will be a very difficult winter for a lot of people,’ says Mark Wolfe, the association’s executive director. The group represents programs that subsidize energy bills…”
