Time running short for Medicaid help, By Jake Grovum, May 4, 2010, Stateline.org: “Late last year, when Congress’ willingness to pass an enormous health care bill still was very much in doubt, states had a more modest goal that should have been easier to achieve. They wanted Congress to pass a 6-month extension of the part of the economic stimulus program that is helping to pay for their Medicaid programs. The Medicaid assistance, set to expire at the end of December, has become a critical component in many state budgets during a time of devastating deficits. So critical, in fact, that two-thirds of the states crafted 2011 budgets assuming that more of it would come through, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. For a while, this looked like a safe bet. The House had included the states’ extension in its original version of health care reform. But by the time Congress produced a final bill for President Obama to sign in March, the aid to states had disappeared into the legislative ether. Now, with Congress ratcheting up its scrutiny of new spending, it’s not at all clear that the Medicaid assistance will ever materialize…”
Day: May 4, 2010
Jobs Program and Temporary Employment – Los Angeles, CA
L.A. County jobless program works for employers too, By Cyndia Zwahlen, May 3, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “A little-known Los Angeles County jobs program is paying $10 an hour to several thousand workers at temporary jobs in businesses around Los Angeles, including hundreds of small firms. Using federal economic stimulus funds, the county is hiring the jobless to work at these companies for up to a year. In exchange, the businesses provide training, build job skills and get extra workers at little or no cost. For small businesses hard-hit by the economic downtown, the chance for extra workers is a welcome boost – even if it means providing training and work space for the temps. So far, 435 businesses have gotten 2,574 temporary workers, county officials said…”
State Childhood Obesity Rates
- Oregon kids show decrease in obesity rates, By Joe Rojas-Burke, May 3, 2010, The Oregonian: “Kids in Oregon — unlike those in 49 other states — are getting leaner, a new study suggests. Problem is, experts can’t explain why Oregon has veered from the extreme weight-gain trend that continues at an alarming rate elsewhere. The prevalence of obesity among 10- to 17-year olds climbed 10 percent nationwide, and it doubled among girls in two states: Arizona and Kansas. But Oregon’s youth obesity rate fell by 32 percent between 2003 and 2007, researchers with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported this week. ‘It seems quite substantial,’ said Gopal Singh, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. ‘We don’t know precisely the reasons for it.’ Singh and others tracked obesity using the National Survey of Children’s Health, a telephone survey of parents. The researchers used height and weight to calculate whether children were overweight or obese…”
- Oregon has lowest rate of childhood obesity, By Carla K. Johnson (AP), May 3, 2010, Washington Post: “What’s the magic in Oregon that keeps kids lean? It’s a mystery health officials would like to solve as they admit all states are failing – by a mile – to meet federal goals for childhood obesity. Oregon has the nation’s lowest rate of hefty kids, according to a new government study, which found big gaps between regions and ballooning obesity rates in many states from 2003 to 2007. More than 16 percent of American children ages 10 to 17 years were not just overweight, but obese, in 2007. That’s a 10 percent rise from 2003. Mississippi topped the nation with more than a fifth of its kids obese. Oregon was the star, with the lowest rate of obesity – defined as body mass index in the 95th percentile or above – at just under 10 percent. And Oregon was the only state whose childhood obesity fell significantly from 2003 to 2007…”