Jobless in Mass. will still get aid, By David Abel and Meghan Irons, April 8, 2010, Boston Globe: “Most Massachusetts residents collecting unemployment benefits will continue receiving assistance for several more weeks, even as tens of thousands of others nationwide began losing the federal aid because Congress left for vacation without extending the benefits. Officials said unemployed people in Massachusetts will temporarily continue to get benefits because of a law passed by the state Legislature last summer. However, if Congress does not extend federal unemployment benefits – which the Senate is scheduled to vote on when it reconvenes next week – as many as 50,000 Massachusetts residents could lose their weekly checks as of May 2, officials said…”
Day: April 8, 2010
States and Medicaid
- Confusion in the capitols, By Jake Grovum, April 8, 2010, Stateline.org: “It was just a quarterly meeting, with top state health officials from around the country gathered in Washington, D.C.’s Fairmont Hotel the last weekend of March. On the agenda: Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But this meeting was not routine. It came less than a week after President Obama signed into law the federal health care overhaul, a measure seen by supporters as his signature domestic policy initiative but by critics as an expensive, cumbersome and, at worst, unconstitutional piece of legislation. On this day, political rhetoric gave way to technocratic questioning on some of the most intricate details of the law. “There’s a lot about this bill that’s yet to be determined,” said Washington State Medicaid Director Doug Porter, who was at the meeting…”
- Health care reform could shift many from BadgerCare Plus to other coverage, By Jason Stein, April 5, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Some 60,000 Wisconsin residents could be shifted in the coming years from the state’s BadgerCare Plus health coverage for the poor to commercial plans, under the federal health reform law. That’s just one option that Wisconsin officials will have as they work through the effects of the sweeping federal law on the state’s own extensive Medicaid health programs. By 2014, Wisconsin officials say, they will likely switch some BadgerCare recipients with higher incomes to one of two programs that have yet to be created – a state plan that would be similar to BadgerCare or a system offering private plans and subsidies to make them affordable…”
- Tennessee removes about 100,000 people from Medicaid rolls, By Anita Wadhwani, April 8, 2010, Kaiser Health News: “After losing the use of her arms and legs in a car accident five years ago, Jessica Pipkin received around-the-clock nursing care through Tennessee’s Medicaid program. Pipkin, 28, said the care — which cost an average of $37 an hour — allowed her to live at home here with her husband and two children. In September, however, Pipkin lost her benefits as part of a state reassessment of many of the program’s enrollees. Officials concluded that she and her husband make too much money to qualify for TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program. Pipkin is not alone. About 100,000 people — mostly elderly or disabled residents — have been dropped since January 2009, including approximately 37,000 who had relied on the state program for all their health care needs. Coverage for 8,000 children was also reassessed, but a TennCare spokeswoman said the number of children ultimately cut from the program could not be verified. ..”