Tribe takes control of child welfare from state, By Jennifer Sullivan, March 28, 2012, Seattle Times: “Jessie Scheibner’s eyes cloud with tears and her voice trembles as she talks about the day, almost 70 years ago, when a stranger’s car pulled up to her parents’ home on the Port Gamble S’Klallam Reservation and took her and her two sisters away. The memories of that car ride when she was 3 and the years spent in one foster home after another are hazy. Foster care was difficult enough, but Scheibner, now 72, clearly recalls being ashamed of her dark hair, brown skin and Native American roots as she bounced from home to home off the reservation. She eventually was reunited with her mother and her sisters when she was 7, but the emotional scars remain. For decades, children who were removed from their homes in child-welfare cases among the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and other tribes across the United States were taken off their reservations and placed in the homes of nontribal members. Because individual states handled child-welfare issues for Native-American tribes, including foster care, abused and neglected children were forced to leave their communities and, often, their cultures…”
Month: March 2012
Medicaid Costs – Florida
- Gov. Rick Scott signs Medicaid billing changes; may cost counties $326 million, By Tia Mitchell, March 29, 2012, Miami Herald: “Against the wishes of counties and tea party leaders, Gov. Rick Scott signed a controversial bill into law Thursday that will change the way counties are billed for Medicaid costs and could set up a legal showdown. If nothing changes, counties could be forced to pay the state an additional $325.5 million in the coming years in disputed Medicaid bills. ‘Nobody really knows what this is going to mean to our budget,’ said Gretchen Harkins, Broward County director of intergovernmental affairs. The Florida Association of Counties has convened a task force to recommend future steps, such as seeking an injunction or filing a lawsuit. Scott took the unusual step of submitting a letter to the Secretary of State’s office explaining why he signed the bill, HB 5301. Scott acknowledged the counties’ concerns and vowed to work with them to resolve years of disagreements with the Agency for Health Care Administration on how much they owe for Medicaid…”
- Fla. leaders fear spike in Medicaid costs, By John Kennedy, March 30, 2012, Palm Beach Post: “For Florida Gov. Rick Scott and leading Republican legislators, winding through the thicket of legal arguments and ideology surrounding the Affordable Care Act usually lands them on a single issue: Money. The Affordable Care Act expands the number of people eligible for Medicaid while also raising the minimum coverage. Workers losing jobs and health coverage during the economic downturn already swelled the ranks of low-income, elderly and disabled Floridians covered by the state-federal program from 2.1 million in 2007 to 3 million this year, and the number is forecast to grow to 5 million by 2020 under the new law. The federal government will absorb all of the initial expansion costs, but states will have to start paying a percentage in 2016 if they want to draw federal money . The states’ share for those becoming eligible under the new law will max out at 10 percent in 2020, but even that, state officials say, is expected to be an extra $1 billion in Florida…”
Welfare Reform – Michigan
Court: Some Michigan welfare recipients wrongly cut, By Kathy Barks Hoffman (AP), March 28, 2012, Detroit News: “Michigan can’t take away welfare benefits under a five-year federal limit if recipients still qualify for cash assistance under state law, a judge ruled Tuesday. Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Geoffrey Neithercut said in his ruling that state Department of Human Services Director Maura Corrigan “exceeded her authority” by ending benefits for more than 11,000 families last October because they had reached the federal limit even though they remained eligible under state limits. Michigan lawmakers in 2007 adopted a four-year limit that had several exceptions, then approved stricter enforcement last year…”