- Medicaid shortfall: $64 million gap in Alabama budget threatens services, By Markeshia Ricks, August 19, 2010, Montgomery Advertiser: “Alabama is enjoying its lowest infant-mortality rate in state history and the state’s top doctor said part of the reason is because of a program that is now faced with a $64 million hole in its budget for fiscal 2011. Medicaid, the state and federally funded health-care program for low-income people, absorbed the cost of care for many pregnant women who lost their jobs and/or their health insurance in the past two years because of a down economy. The federal government is providing $133 million for the program, but that is far less than the $197 million that lawmakers expected and budgeted for the program for fiscal 2011 which starts in just over a month. Failure to fill that $64 million shortfall could not only cause a reduction in direct services to needy people, it could hurt the state’s entire health care system and its economy…”
- Report: Nebraska Medicaid costs likely to soar, By Nancy Hicks, August 18, 2010, Lincoln Journal Star: “The price tag for federal health care reform is ‘staggering and shocking,’ Gov. Dave Heineman said Wednesday as he released the results of an independent study. The state will pay $526.3 million to $765.9 million more over the next 10 years for required expansion of Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans, Heineman said. The cost could force the state to cut funding to education or raise taxes, he said. The $765 million represents an 8.5 percent increase in state spending over 10 years, assuming the highest participation rate. ‘This unfunded and unparalleled Medicaid mandate is unfair and unsustainable to Nebraska and other states,’ Heineman said during a news conference focused on a report by Milliman Inc., an independent actuarial firm. But the report also indicates 145,000 additional low-income Nebraskans will have access to health care through Medicaid, said Sen. Jeremy Nordquist, a member of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee…”
Day: August 19, 2010
Infant Mortality Rate – Alabama
State’s rate of infant deaths hits lowest point in history, By Markeshia Ricks, August 19, 2010, Montgomery Advertiser: “Alabama’s infant-mortality rate has dropped from a 10-year high in 2007 to the lowest in its history in 2009, State Health Officer Donald Williamson said Wednesday. Williamson believes part of the reason the number of babies who die during their first year of life is down is related to the economy. Alabama’s infant-mortality rate stands at 8.2 deaths per 1,000 live births according to numbers released Wednesday, down significantly from a high of 10 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2007, though still well above the national rate of 6.5. Alabama had 513 infant deaths in 2009, which was also the fewest number of babies to die in the state since tracking began more than a century ago. The number of infant deaths in 2009 was 99 fewer than in 2008, according to the state Department of Public Health…”
Federal Funding for Housing Aid and Homelessness Prevention
- Feds offer aid to renters as well as homeowners, By Kathleen Pender, August 15, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle: “Congress and the Obama administration have committed tens of billions of dollars to keep homeowners in their homes. Renters, who make up about one-third of households nationwide – and close to two-thirds in San Francisco and other large cities – wish the government would do a little more for them. For homeowners, Obama’s Making Home Affordable program obtained $50 billion from the Troubled Assets Relief Program plus $25 billion, mainly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Originally this money was supposed to help homeowners refinance or modify subprime mortgages (which qualified as troubled assets). More recently it has been used to help those who can’t pay their mortgage because they are unemployed. Last week, the Treasury said it is using $2 billion to help unemployed homeowners in 17 states, including California…”
- Habitat for Humanity uses federal funds to rehab metro Detroit homes, By Tammy Stables Battaglia, August 16, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Habitat for Humanity, an agency known for building new houses, is using funds from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program to rehab old ones. The program, created in 2008 under President George W. Bush, provides communities and organizations funding to redevelop residential properties. That money must be allocated to projects by Sept. 19. In 2006, seven of 52 Habitat homes in Michigan were rehabs. The organization rehabbed 104 of its 221 homes during the first three months of this year, and there are dozens more projects to be completed, Habitat officials said…”
- Red tape slows North Texas agencies in disseminating federal funds to fight homelessness, By Neena Satija, August 15, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Getting federal stimulus money to those in need had a slow start in North Texas, with understaffed agencies bogged down in paperwork. Now that the initiative is in full swing – the job has only gotten harder. North Texas received $25 million for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing program in September. As of March, it had only spent $2 million. Now, it has spent $7 million and helped 7,800 households. But a faster flow of dollars means a bigger maze of red tape…”