- Medicaid cost crisis looms for Bay State, By Michael Levenson, January 3, 2011, Boston Globe: “The money, it seems, is never enough. Governor Deval Patrick approved a record $9.6 billion last July for the state’s health insurance program for the poor – sufficient, he assumed, to last a year. But the program’s costs quickly outpaced expectations, forcing the governor to approve an additional $329 million in October and then seek $258 million more, which lawmakers approved last week. And even that may not last, with six months remaining in the budget year. The ballooning cost of Medicaid is one of the biggest challenges facing Massachusetts and other states, which have seen demand for the program jump during the recession as increasing numbers of unemployed residents enroll in the subsidized insurance plan…”
- TennCare funding problem persists despite overhaul, By Anita Wadhwani, January 3, 2011, The Tennessean: “Eight years ago, Phil Bredesen successfully campaigned on his pledge to fix TennCare or end it. Since then, the governor has steered the state’s public health-care program through the most turbulent changes of any of the 50 state Medicaid programs, drastically cutting enrollment, limiting benefits and reining in spending. Rising health-care costs and new federal policy mean the Bredesen administration’s eight-year effort to bring the TennCare budget under control has only bought Tennessee time. Nationally, advocates opposing an expanded government role in health care credit Bredesen for making hard decisions to cut more than 350,000 people from TennCare’s rolls, staving off a state budget crisis. Critics say the human impact of the cuts has been deep, with new data showing many pushed off the TennCare rolls remain uninsured…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty