- Ease rules for health program for poor, bill urges, By Tony Leys, January 7, 2010, Des Moines Register: “Poor, uninsured adults from throughout Iowa could receive health care at nearby hospitals and clinics, instead of having to travel to Iowa City, under proposed changes to a state health-care program. For most Iowa residents, the IowaCare program pays for medical care only at University of Iowa Hospitals. For Polk County residents, the program also covers care at Broadlawns Medical Center. The rules mean western Iowans must travel hundreds of miles to receive health care under the program. Legislators this spring will consider loosening those rules, but only if federal officials would help pay for the changes. About 33,500 Iowans are covered by the program, which offers basic health care to poor adults who don’t qualify for Medicaid. It was cobbled together in 2005 as a compromise to prevent federal officials from cutting $60 million from the state’s Medicaid program…”
- Medicaid cuts could hurt poor, elderly and children, By Veronica Chufo, December 19, 2009, Daily Press: “Virginia’s Medicaid recipients, hospitals and nursing homes could take a hit under outgoing Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposed budget cuts. The two-year state budget proposal that Kaine unveiled Friday includes a $419 million reduction to Medicaid, which covers health-care costs mostly for residents who are blind or disabled and low-income women and children. It also covers nursing-home stays for the elderly. It’s too early to tell exactly how the reductions will affect health-care systems and long-term care facilities, but health officials say Medicaid reimbursement rates in Virginia are already low…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty