Sides gird up for Medicaid fight, By Marc Caputo, March 7, 2011, Miami Herald: “In Florida, poverty is big business. Just look at the Medicaid healthcare program, which could account for $22 billion in spending in the coming budget year. It’s the most expensive program in the state budget right now and funds more than 80,000 providers, from large hospitals to podiatrists. It’s on pace to cover more than 3.2 million poor, elderly and disabled Floridians – 15 percent of the population, including more than a quarter of all children, half of all births and almost two-thirds of nursing-home care. But with all the increases – 50 percent over five years – lawmakers say they have to tamp down on costs and improve care. Their solution: require that HMO-like managed-care companies take more control of Medicaid. Lawmakers also want to trim reimbursement rates and cut some programs, including those for the catastrophically sick. Some hope to expand the use of vouchers for recipients to buy private health insurance, and they would like to use the program to help subsidize health insurance for employees of some private businesses…”
Day: March 7, 2011
Chronic Homelessness and Housing
Ending homelessness: A model that just might work, By Pam Fessler, March 7, 2011, National Public Radio: “More than 30 years ago, a nonprofit was launched in New York City to try to find permanent housing for chronically homeless people in Times Square. Now it has a national campaign that some people think could be an important first step toward ending homelessness in America. Standing outside an elegant 15-story brick building in midtown Manhattan, Rosanne Haggerty, who runs the nonprofit Common Ground, recalls how it all began – how a former hotel became a model for housing the homeless. ‘In the early ’80s, I lived right next-door to the Times Square Hotel,’ she says. ‘It was back in the day when Times Square was Times Square, as we say – kind of a crazy neighborhood to say the least.’ The area was known mostly for peep shows and prostitutes. It was long before anyone dreamed that Times Square would become a family destination. Haggerty worked with the homeless at the time, and was upset to find out that the hotel was about to shut down…”
State Budget Cuts and School Class Sizes
Tight budgets mean squeeze in classrooms, By Sam Roberts, March 6, 2011, New York Times: “Millions of public school students across the nation are seeing their class sizes swell because of budget cuts and teacher layoffs, undermining a decades-long push by parents, administrators and policy makers to shrink class sizes. Over the past two years, California, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin have loosened legal restrictions on class size. And Idaho and Texas are debating whether to fit more students in classrooms. Los Angeles has increased the average size of its ninth-grade English and math classes to 34 from 20. Eleventh- and 12th-grade classes in those two subjects have risen, on average, to 43 students. ‘Because many states are facing serious budget gaps, we’ll see more increases this fall,’ said Marguerite Roza, a University of Washington professor who has studied the recession’s impact on schools. The increases are reversing a trend toward smaller classes that stretches back decades. Since the 1980s, teachers and many other educators have embraced research finding that smaller classes foster higher achievement…”