- Jobless benefits change to start this week, By Josh Lintereur and Chad Dally, January 2, 2012, Wausau Daily Herald: “A new state budget provision requiring a one-week waiting period before unemployed workers can begin collecting unemployment benefits takes effect this week. The new provision will affect the newly unemployed and those already collecting benefits. In some cases, it will result in a laid-off worker receiving one less check than he or she would have in the past. State lawmakers made the change as part of the 2011-13 biennial budget, meaning Wisconsin will join more than three dozen states that already have instituted waiting periods. State labor officials said the delay will save an estimated $45.2 million a year by allowing additional time to determine eligibility and reduce improper payments, and by pushing the payment schedule back…”
- Many of state’s jobless struggle: No benefits, no job and no luck finding one, By Scott Davis, December 29, 2011, Lansing State Journal: “Thousands of Michigan’s unemployed have a renewed lifeline with last week’s extension of federal jobless benefits. But Virona Brown could be among the thousands who will begin the New Year with no job prospects, unreturned calls on employment applications and no unemployment check to pay basic necessities. Though Michigan’s unemployment rate dipped to 9.8 percent last month, the Lansing woman and several others say they are still struggling to find employment in the region…”
Day: January 5, 2012
Medicaid Enrollment – Colorado
Medicaid rolls in Colorado at “all-time historical high” in November, By Tim Hoover and Kristen Leigh Painter, January 5, 2012, Denver Post: “Nearly 615,000 Coloradans were on Medicaid in November, by far a record high, officials said Wednesday, attributing the vast bulk of the growth to economic hard times rather than recent eligibility expansions. ‘We’ve had a mushrooming of clients,’ Sue Birch, director of the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, told members of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee. Birch said the 614,146 Coloradans enrolled in Medicaid in November represented a 57.7 percent increase over January 2007. ‘This is an all-time historical high,’ she said. Added to the 71,988 children and pregnant women covered under the state’s CHP+ program – a 42 percent increase over January 2007 – it means roughly 13 percent of all Coloradans are covered by state health-insurance programs. The spike hasn’t gone unnoticed in the benefits line…”