After the hospital, a haven for homeless patients to recuperate, By Anna Gorman, August 28, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “A taxi dropped off Kim McAuliffe, clutching a plastic bag of medications, at a Los Angeles motel. She had just been discharged from Garfield Medical Center and had nowhere to go. ‘The hospital sent you here to rest after you’ve been sick,’ Roy Kaufman, a case coordinator, told her as she slumped into a chair. ‘We’re gonna take care of you.’ Everyone here has been in a hospital, is ill and homeless. Outside, the place looks like a standard motel, with a sign advertising color TV and air conditioning. Inside, nurses help homeless patients change bandages, take medication and recover from surgeries. Opened 10 months ago by the nonprofit Illumination Foundation, the Recuperative Care Center has 20 motel beds where homeless patients with acute illnesses or injuries recover after being released from local hospitals. The program and others like it dramatically reduce costly hospital stays and emergency room visits – often funded by taxpayers – and give hospitals a place to safely release patients without leaving them on the streets…”
Day: September 1, 2011
COBRA Health Coverage
- Federal subsidy for COBRA health coverage to expire, By Phil Galewitz, August 30, 2011, Miami Herald: “One of the key consumer benefits of the federal stimulus package – subsidies to help laid-off workers continue their health care coverage – draws to a close Wednesday, raising concerns about how the unemployed will cover those expenses. It’s a dilemma that Holly Jespersen knows firsthand. She lost her job twice in the past two years – both times losing her employer-paid health insurance. But the second time, she paid about $350 a month more for insurance than she had the first time because she didn’t qualify for the subsidy. ‘It made a huge difference for me,’ said Jespersen, 36, of Darien, Conn. ‘I wish I still had it.’ Jespersen was one of millions of laid-off workers to benefit from the federal subsidies for COBRA, a program set up under federal law that allows people who lose their jobs to keep the employer-provided insurance, typically for 18 months, if they pay the entire premium plus a small percentage for an administrative fee…”
- No more coverage for the unemployed, By Tim Darragh, August 31, 2011, Allentown Morning Call: “Hospital emergency departments may see a continued increase in the number of uninsured people they treat, now that a federal stimulus-funded benefit that helped underwrite health care coverage for the unemployed ended Wednesday. Deficit-conscious members of Congress last year decided to let the subsidy expire, leaving unemployed people who had been getting COBRA coverage the option of paying for it in full, finding a short-term policy or going without health insurance. Enrollment in the program ended in May 2010, and subsidies expired Wednesday for most eligible individuals. There is little doubt that many, if not most, of those people will go uninsured, said Antoinette Kraus, project manager of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, a coalition of organizations working to expand health coverage for working people and the poor…”
SNAP and Food Retailers
- Vendors multiply for food stamps, By Jonathan Ellis and Megan Luther, August 27, 2011, Argus Leader: “The number of people on food stamps in South Dakota has jumped 75 percent in the past five years, meaning one of every eight South Dakotans now is in the program. In 2009, the latest year numbers were available, food stamp participants in this state spent $111.2 million. For companies that sell food, those statistics represent opportunity. And that’s why from 2005 to 2010, the number of vendors certified by the United States Department of Agriculture to take food stamps in South Dakota rose 19 percent to 622 vendors, according to an Argus Leader analysis of USDA data…”
- Fast-food restaurants lobby for slice of food stamp sales, By Jonathan Ellis and Megan Luther, August 27, 2011, Argus Leader: “The main goal of the nation’s food stamp program has been to supplement the buying power of low-income residents when they shop for unprepared foods at grocery stores. But a major restaurant company is lobbying the federal government on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, federal lobbying records show. Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands has allies among advocates for the hungry who hope to give restaurants a greater role in SNAP…”
- Michigan restaurants hungry to accept Bridge Cards, By Jaclyn Trop, September 1, 2011, Detroit News: “Michigan has experienced an explosion in the number of restaurants participating in a program that allows some residents who receive food assistance to redeem their benefits for a hot meal. In the past year and a half, the number of restaurants approved to use Michigan’s Bridge Cards – debit-style cards – to serve food to recipients who are blind, homeless or 60 years and older has grown to 105 restaurants from eight, said Christina Fecher, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Human Services, which oversees the program. That is a jump of 1,200 percent. Prior to this, the program that started around 1996 had only three restaurants participating, she said. The reason behind the surge of interest among local eateries isn’t clear to state and restaurant industry officials. But it has coincided with the growth of Michigan’s overall food assistance program – including a 57 percent increase in the state’s recipients from 2006 to 2010 and a 127 percent jump in its funding to $2.8 billion during the same time, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture…”