- Cost of state’s Medicaid program rises 140% since 1998, report says, By Patrick Marley, December 18, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The cost of the state’s safety-net health programs have more than doubled over the past 11 years, a review by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance has found. The cost of Medicaid jumped from $2.51 billion in fiscal 1998 to $6.05 billion in fiscal 2009 – a more than 140% increase, the nonprofit group said in a report released Friday. During that time, enrollment in the program nearly tripled, to more than 1 million people. The details come as the state Department of Health Services considers how to save $1 billion in the program because of soaring enrollment and lower tax revenue…”
- Oregon health care on life line, By William McCall (AP), December 28, 2009, Salem Statesman Journal: “Of the $1.27 billion Oregon is getting in federal stimulus money for health and human services, most of it – $833 million – is going to people whose medical benefits are paid by the Oregon Health Plan. The stimulus money has made it possible for Oregon to meet unprecedented increases in demand for health care services at a time when state revenues were falling, said Dr. Bruce Goldberg, director of the Oregon Department of Human Services. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding has boosted the number of people on the plan to about 460,000 and allowed the state to handle a caseload that has increased about 15 percent without reducing benefits to existing patients…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty