- Ruling: AHCCCS copays break law, By Mary K. Reinhart, August 25, 2011, Arizona Republic: “A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that mandatory copayments charged to Arizona’s poorest residents violate federal law. The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said federal health officials failed to show how the copays, imposed in November after a seven-year court battle, served any purpose besides cutting the state’s Medicaid budget. Federal law gives the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary discretion to approve state Medicaid ‘waivers’ as long as the programs have a ‘research or demonstration value.’ Raising copayments for more than 200,000 of Arizona’s poorest residents and making them mandatory, the judges said, helped balance the state budget but didn’t meet that federal standard…”
- Illinois Medicaid’s managed care effort stumbles, By Judith Graham, August 26, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “It can take years for people with cerebral palsy, autism, schizophrenia or Down syndrome to find trusted physicians to oversee their health. Now, families and advocates say, those medical relationships are being threatened as Illinois rolls out a new program of HMO-style care for people with serious disabilities. Many doctors and hospitals are refusing to join the new Medicaid program, which the state hopes will better coordinate care and lower costs for some of its neediest recipients. The providers’ rationale: They dislike the bureaucratic hassles and cost-cutting measures associated with managed care. The ranks of those who have said no, for the moment, include prominent medical centers and physician practices with a long track record of serving the disabled, among them Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush University Medical Center, the University of Chicago Medical Center, Children’s Memorial Hospital and Loyola University Health System. Because of the situation, hundreds if not thousands of vulnerable, chronically ill individuals are being forced to find new doctors, some of whom appear ill-equipped to handle their needs, according to consumer advocates and families…”
Day: August 26, 2011
Grandparents as Caregivers to Grandchildren
Aging America: Grandparents stepping in to help grandkids as families struggle in bad economy, Associated Press, August 26, 2011, Washington Post: “America is swiftly becoming a granny state. Less frail and more involved, today’s grandparents are shunning retirement homes and stepping in more than ever to raise grandchildren while young adults struggle in the poor economy. The newer grandparents are mainly baby boomers who are still working, with greater disposable income. Now making up 1 in 4 adults, grandparents are growing at twice the rate of the overall population and sticking close to family – if their grandkids aren’t already living with them. Grandparents in recent decades have often filled in for absent parents who were ill or battled addiction, or were sent to prison. The latest trend of grandparent involvement, reflected in census figures released Thursday, is now being driven also by the economy and the graying U.S. population, including the 78 million boomers born between 1946 and 1964 who began turning 65 this year…”
US Food Insecurity
- Study confirms child hunger is a growing problem in rural areas, By Laura Bauer, August 24, 3011, Kansas City Star: “Robert Krogsdale says his six daughters have never missed dinner or gone hungry. But look at what the Bates County, Mo., man and his wife, Reanna, have to do to make that happen: They use food stamps. They buy bread and fruit on sale. They rely on cheap staples like spaghetti. For Christmas, his parents give them packages of beef they use throughout the year. And once a month, the Krogsdales drive 17 miles from their rural home into Butler, Mo. – sometimes in the family’s 12-passenger, 12 miles-per-gallon van – to load up on groceries at a food pantry. ‘I make sure they have their plates and mouths full,’ Krogsdale said of their six daughters, as well as two stepsons who are with the family on the weekends. ‘If it boils down to I don’t eat, it’s real simple.’ Often, when people think of the nation’s hungry kids, the image is of families in urban-core neighborhoods. In rural areas, where farmers harvest crops and ranchers raise livestock, kids do all right – or at least that was the perception of many…”
- Hunger a problem for Southwest Michigan children, new study shows, By Chris Fusciardi, August 26, 2011, Kalamazoo Gazette: “More than one in five children under the age of 18 in Kalamazoo County live in households that are struggling with hunger, according to a new study. The study, ‘Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2011,’ found that 21.5 percent of children in Kalamazoo County are struggling with hunger, a figure that was determined using 2009 U.S. Census data including median family income and childhood poverty rates. The study was released Thursday by the Food Bank of South Central Michigan and the national nonprofit agency Feeding America…”
- Food Bank: 1-in-4 Midland County kids hungry; some West Texas areas much higher, By Kathleen Thurber, August 25, 2011, Midland Reporter-Telegram: “More than one in three children suffer from food insecurity in the 22-county area served by the West Texas Food Bank, according to a report released Thursday. Data released by Feeding America shows 24.8 percent of children in Midland County deal with hunger issues. And while that’s lower than the 34.9 percent of children in the West Texas area who are hungry, it still is above the national average of 23.2 percent, according to the report…”