Job and wage gains as Americans rejoin the work force, By Nelson D. Schwartz, February 6, 2015, New York Times: “The economy barreled through the last three months with strong momentum, the Labor Department said Friday, as American employers added 257,000 jobs in January, wage growth rebounded and more people went looking for work in an improving labor market. With new figures on the last two months of the year, 2014 turned out to be the strongest year for job gains since 1999. The government revised upward the already healthy figures for payroll gains in November and December, increasing their estimate by 147,000. All told, the economy added, on average, 260,000 jobs a month over the course of the year…”
Day: February 6, 2015
State Medicaid Programs
- Some Iowans will face premiums for Medicaid expansion, By Catherine Lucey, February 1, 2015, Des Moines Register: “As Iowa’s modified Medicaid expansion hits the one-year anniversary mark, some enrollees will be asked to pay small monthly premiums because they have not yet completed a required physical exam and health questionnaire. For Gov. Terry Branstad, setting these health requirements was a key provision for expanding Medicaid in Iowa using funding from President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. The state received federal approval to make modifications to the traditional Medicaid terms, including setting health requirements and charging contributions…”
- US’s 1st program using federal funds to buy private insurance for poor survives in Arkansas, By Andrew DeMillo (AP), February 5, 2015, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation program using federal funds to buy private health insurance for the poor will survive another year after the Legislature reauthorized the program Thursday, despite an influx of new Republican lawmakers elected on a vow to kill the hybrid Medicaid expansion. The Arkansas House voted 82-16 to reauthorize funding through June 2016 for the ‘private option’ plan, which was crafted two years ago as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health law. Arkansas was the first state to win federal approval for such an approach, touted as a compromise for Republican-leaning states…”
- Medicaid could dump 500,000 Ohioans in 6 months, By Catherine Candisky, February 6, 2015, Columbus Dispatch: “The state will send out letters to 107,000 Medicaid recipients today telling them that their health-care benefits will be terminated on Feb. 28 for failure to verify their income. ‘They should consider this as a final notice,’ said Sam Rossi, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Medicaid. ‘There is personal responsibility. You need to report income for a program like Medicaid.’ An additional 140,000 recipients will receive termination notices next week, with 100,000 scheduled for March. The Ohio Job and Family Services Association and advocates for the poor have urged state officials to delay terminating benefits because fewer than half of those sent renewal notifications in December have responded, and many never received them…”
- Few lawmakers supported Haslam’s Insure Tennessee, By Dave Boucher, February 4, 2015, The Tennessean: “In 21 months, Gov. Bill Haslam and his administration spent countless hours crafting a health care plan they thought could thread the political needle: satisfy Democrats in Washington, D.C., Republicans in Tennessee and help the working poor. It took considerably less time for the plan to unravel in the General Assembly. After a little more than two days, a few state Senators officially killed Haslam’s plan to provide 280,000 low-income Tennesseans with federally funded health care…”
- Governor’s panel again urges Medicaid expansion in Idaho, By Bill Dentzer, February 6, 2015, Idaho Statesman: “Members of the governor-appointed group that developed options for expanding Medicaid to cover Idaho’s poorest adults told lawmakers Thursday that opposition to the expansion has blocked money that taxpayers are due under federal health care reform. The panel’s alternative funding plan provides greater accountability, saves money and gives the state more control over how funds are spent, they said. The federal government already has approved similar alternative plans in other states where Medicaid expansion has been politically or ideologically unpopular…”
Foster Care System – Arizona
- Lawsuit: Arizona’s neglect of foster kids shocking, By Mary Jo Pitzi, February 4, 2015, Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s neglect of children in foster care ‘shocks the conscience’ and amounts to official apathy toward the plight of nearly 17,000 children, a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court alleges. ‘It is time that someone gives voice to the thousands of children in foster care who have no say about where they live, where their siblings go, or what happens in their future,’ Kris Jacober, president of the Arizona Association for Foster and Adoptive Parents, said in a statement accompanying the suit…”
- Don’t let foster-care lawsuit get us off track, Editorial, February 4, 2015, Arizona Republic: “It’s hard to be dispassionate after reading the stories that led to a class-action lawsuit against the state on behalf of nearly 17,000 children in foster care. Sobs or howls of anger come more easily. The lawsuit uses the state’s own data to show how children often remain in limbo after being shunted around multiple placements, separated from siblings and denied medical, dental, behavioral and mental-health treatment…”