- Food-stamp use reaches record level in Oregon, By Michael Rose, January 20, 2011, Statesman Journal: “For 14 months, Oregon’s unemployment rate has hovered between 10.5 percent and 10.7 percent. That’s bad enough, but another sign of economic hardship keeps rising to record levels: food-stamp recipients. People receiving benefits from Oregon’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program increased by 7,467 in December. The total number of Oregonians in the SNAP program – formerly known as food stamps – now stands at 748,886…”
- Food stamps now help 1 in 5 in Jacksonville, By Deirdre Conner, Florida Times-Union: “Food stamp use has more than doubled in Duval County over the past five years. That grim statistic is twice the national average and is the second highest in a study of 22 cities nationwide, according to a report released Monday. The report, issued by the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger advocacy group, showed Jacksonville as second only to Las Vegas in the growth in people who depend on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is commonly called food stamps. It looked at a geographically balanced cross section of urban areas…”
Day: January 27, 2011
State Medicaid Programs
- Hospitals, poor patients face new costs, By Kay Lazar and Stephen Smith, January 27, 2011, Boston Globe: “Payments to hospitals and other health care providers would be slashed and low-income patients served by Medicaid would have to pay higher copayments under the spending plan Governor Deval Patrick proposed yesterday for the next budget year. But the biggest savings in the $10 billion program that serves 1.2 million residents would come from revising and rebidding Medicaid contracts to encourage health care providers to work together to drive down costs. With health care spending, including Medicaid, now making up 39 percent of the state budget, Patrick said it was time to take aggressive action to halt the relentless trend upward…”
- Minnesota health CEOs taking a whack at Medicaid, By Warren Wolfe, January 26, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Concerned that the Legislature and governor might get it wrong, CEOs from seven major health plans and providers have drawn up their own plan to streamline Minnesota’s massive Medicaid program — and carve $1.8 billion from the projected $6.2 billion deficit. The plan is sure to draw political fire. It suggests up to $170 million in cuts to state-funded services that help keep the elderly and disabled out of institutions, for example, and captures $280 million in higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol. Nonetheless, its influential authors and specific targets will make it part of the debate as lawmakers grapple with a state budget in which health care consumes 30 percent of all spending…”
- Gov. Steve Beshear wants Medicaid funds shifted to avoid shortage, By Deborah Yetter, January 19, 2011, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Seeking to prevent deep cuts in services, Gov. Steve Beshear said Wednesday that he will ask lawmakers to shift $166.5 million from next year’s Medicaid budget into the current fiscal year. The maneuver would allow Kentucky to draw more federal matching money for Medicaid from federal stimulus funds, though it only postpones the need to achieve savings or make cuts in the program. The stimulus funds expire June 30, which is also the end of the current fiscal year. If nothing is done, Kentucky’s $6 billion-a-year Medicaid program could wind up as much as $600 million short this year, the governor said. And that, he said, could lead to ‘devastating’ cuts of up to 30 percent in the federal-state health plan for the poor and disabled that serves more than 800,000 people…”
Poverty Measurement in the US
Measure by measure, January 20, 2011, The Economist: “Most people have an inherent sense of what it means to be poor. But choosing a definition is much trickier. Is poverty an absolute or relative condition? What is a decent standard of living? Such questions have dogged America’s social scientists for decades. This month the Census Bureau published a preliminary estimate of poverty, using a new definition. It was 16 years in the making. But it is not quite finished yet. Poverty means different things in different countries. In Europe, the poor are those whose income falls below 60% of the median. Britain uses three measures: one relative, one absolute and a broader indicator of material deprivation, such as whether a child can celebrate his birthday. The concept of poverty becomes even more slippery when attempting international comparisons. The United Nations’ ‘human- development index’ assesses countries across a range of indicators, such as schooling and life expectancy…”