- LePage’s claims that Maine’s Medicaid spending is above average are true, By Clarke Canfield (AP), February 20, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “In his relentless demands for steep Medicaid cuts, Gov. Paul LePage has said Maine spends far more per capita than other states on Medicaid and is high above the national average. Whether you support or oppose LePage’s cost-cutting proposals, he’s right. Maine had the nation’s fifth-highest Medicaid coverage rate in fiscal year 2009, 27.8 percent, behind California, New Mexico, Louisiana and Vermont, according to the latest statistics for Maine from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The national rate for the same period was 21 percent. Maine’s Medicaid expenses for that year amounted to $1,890 per resident. That’s 61 percent higher than the national average of $1,173 per person, according to CMMS statistics…”
- New Mexico proposes to overhaul Medicaid program, By Barry Massey, February 21, 2012, February 21, 2012, Boston Globe: “Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration is proposing to overhaul a program that provides health care to a fourth of the state’s population, and the changes could require some needy New Mexicans to dig into their pockets to pay a fee if they go to an emergency room for medical care that’s not considered an emergency. One of the goals of the planned revision is to slow the rate of growth in Medicaid, which accounts for 16 percent of this year’s state budget and costs New Mexico taxpayers nearly $1 billion…”
Day: February 21, 2012
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program
President Obama’s budget proposal targets home heating bill program, By Larry Bivins, February 20, 2012, Appleton Post-Crescent: “Once again advocates for the poor will have to appeal to Congress for an increase in funding for a program that helped more than 230,000 Wisconsinites last year pay their home heating bills. That’s because President Barack Obama has again proposed cuts to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The president wants to spend $3 billion on the program in fiscal year 2013, which begins Oct. 1. While that represents an increase over the $2.6 billion he requested in his budget plan for the current fiscal year, it is less than the nearly $3.5 billion Congress appropriated and far short of the full authorization amount of $5.1 billion Congress approved in 2009 and in 2010…”
Child Welfare System – Nebraska
Another blow to child welfare privatization, By Martha Stoddard, February 21, 2012, Omaha World-Herald: “Nebraska’s experiment in privatizing child welfare services suffered a major blow Tuesday when one of two contractors pulled out. Officials with the Kansas-based KVC announced that the company will stop managing child welfare cases as of Feb. 29. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services will take back the responsibility. KVC’s departure leaves the state with only one private contractor: the Omaha-based Nebraska Families Collaborative. The state and KVC ultimately parted ways over money…”