Poverty is hitting the suburbs with more sting, By Mary Jane Smetanka, March 6, 2010, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “In a startling shift, Twin Cities suburbs now have more poor people than the core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Job losses, foreclosures and disappearing insurance coverage have pushed requests for food stamps, medical assistance and emergency housing aid to record levels. Homeless numbers are rising. Food shelves are scrambling to meet demand. It’s a trend mirrored in suburbs across the nation, where a recent study found that suburban poverty has grown five times faster than it has in big cities. Worst hit are single moms and unskilled workers whose finances were shaky before the economy dipped. But financial stress reaches well into the middle class…”
Day: March 8, 2010
Enrollment of Children in Medicaid – Alaska
Increased Medicaid usage spikes cost, By Lisa Demer, March 7, 2010, Anchorage Daily News: “The single biggest item in the Alaska state budget is experiencing a costly growth spurt. It’s Medicaid — the state-federal insurance program for poor and low-income people. The cost is sure to top $1.2 billion this budget year and is expected to scale $1.3 billion the next. About 11,000 more children enrolled in the last 18 months. Doctors’ rates went up. And more people eligible for the program began to use it, perhaps out of anxiety over all the talk in Congress about national health care reform. A weakened state economy is at least partly to blame, a legislative consultant told lawmakers recently. The state unemployment rate is rising, and along with it, the numbers of Alaskans turning to food stamps and Medicaid, consultant Janet Clarke, a former top official in the state Department of Health and Social Services, told the House Finance Committee recently…”
Medicaid Coverage and Childless Adults
Health overhaul would help the childless poor, By Rick Schmitt, March 8, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Marilyn Matthews has no job, no health insurance, and until now, no chance of qualifying for Medicaid. She’s unquestionably poor – her last regular paycheck was more than three years ago – and would meet the income criteria for Medicaid. The rub is that Matthews, 51, of Havertown is a healthy adult with no children. While Medicaid is the main government health insurance plan for the poor, the joint state-federal program has excluded Matthews and millions of other adults with no dependent children since the 1960s. Medicaid has been limited mainly to children in poor families, the elderly, pregnant women and the disabled. Some states have tried to fill the gap, but most uninsured Americans now are childless adults. The lowest-income members of the group would be big beneficiaries of the Democratic health insurance overhaul plans in Washington. All told, 15 million more people could join Medicaid, including not only childless adults but also others such as those whose health insurance vanished with their jobs…”