Big jump in food-stamp enrollment drives farm bill debate, By Charles Pope, July 22, 2012, The Oregonian: “The farm bill Congress is struggling to pass is enormous — a $958 billion piece of legislation filling 600 pages that seems nearly as expansive as the horizon-to-horizon mega-farms and ranches it governs. Whether it passes this year depends on the response to two questions that have nothing to do with agriculture and affect everyone in the country: Who should pay to reduce the nation’s $1.2 trillion deficit? And, what is the government’s obligation to help people in need? In addition to crop and conservation programs, the farm bill pays for food stamps, technically the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP. The recession spurred growth in the program, which now helps 46 million Americans, including one in five in Oregon…”
Day: July 24, 2012
Health Care Ruling and the Uninsured
- 3 million fewer may be insured due to ruling, study predicts, By Robert Pear, July 24, 2012, New York Times: “The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the Supreme Court decision on President Obama’s health care overhaul would probably lead to an increase in the number of uninsured and a modest reduction in the cost to the federal government, compared with estimates before the court ruling. The court said, in effect, that a large expansion of Medicaid envisioned under the 2010 law was a state option, not a requirement. As a result, the budget office said, it now predicts that six million fewer people will be insured by Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people. But half of them, it said, will probably gain private insurance coverage through health insurance exchanges to be established in all states…”
- Supreme Court decision scales back cost, coverage of healthcare law, By Noam N. Levey, July 24, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “Fewer Americans will likely get health insurance over the next decade under President Obama’s healthcare law as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to limit it, according to a new analysis of the landmark ruling. At the same time, the court’s decision to allow states to opt out of a major expansion of the government Medicaid insurance program for the poor could also save taxpayers $84 billion by 2022, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates. The new projections confirm that the court’s ruling will not fundamentally alter the law that Obama signed in 2010…”
- CBO: Court ruling cuts cost of health-care law, but leaves 3 million more uninsured, By Lori Montgomery, July 24, 2012, Washington Post: “President Obama’s signature health-care initiative will cost a bit less than expected thanks to last month’s Supreme Court ruling, but the court’s decision is also likely to leave millions of poor people without access to health insurance, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday. In its June 28 ruling, the court upheld the bulk of the Affordable Care Act, but struck down its plan to require states to expand their Medicaid programs to cover poor people who earn as much as 138 percent of the federal poverty level. As a result of the court’s decision, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office now expects that some states will refuse to fully expand their Medicaid programs or will not do so immediately when most provisions of the law take effect in 2014…”