Deluged nonprofits help needy get food stamps, By April Hunt, January 3, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Teresa Ashe took a break from looking for work on a recent rainy morning to fill out the necessary paperwork that would get her a week’s worth of food. But the laid-off housekeeper didn’t rush home to tuck into the offerings of tinned stew or boxes of mac and cheese from the Christian Aid Mission Partnership, or CAMP, food pantry in Austell. She waited in the office so she could meet with an expert to help her apply online for food stamps. If approved, she will be eating more fresh vegetables and meat for her new year job hunt. ‘I don’t know what’s going to come next,’ said Ashe, whose unemployment benefits ran out the week before Christmas. ‘It’s going to be thin until I can find a job. I can use the help.’ Ashe is hardly alone. Faced with a record number of hungry Georgians, food-bank operators and state officials have teamed up to find more potential recipients of the food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…”
Tag: Georgia
Joblessness and Unemployment
- Unemployment rates fell in two-thirds of US cities last month, despite slowdown in hiring, Associated Press, September 28, 2011, Washington Post: “Unemployment rates fell in roughly two-thirds of U.S. cities last month, despite zero job growth nationwide. The Labor Department said Wednesday that unemployment rates dropped in 237 of the nation’s largest metro areas in August from July. They rose in 103 and stayed the same in 32. That’s an improvement from July, when rates fell in 193 areas and rose in 118. Some areas with large agricultural sectors added jobs to coincide with the start of the harvest. Auto companies boosted hiring in several other cities…”
- Georgia could cut jobless benefits to repay feds, By Dan Chapman, September 27, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia borrowed $721 million from Washington to help the unemployed survive the lousy economy and now, as the bills come due, it may repay the debt by cutting back on jobless benefits. The state Labor Department will send a $21.4 million check to Washington this week, the first payment on debt run up since late 2009. Labor Commissioner Mark Butler is weighing a slew of repayment options, but strongly hinted he favors cutting benefits — both the weekly amount and the number of weeks of eligibility…”
State Medicaid Programs – Georgia, Utah
- State proposes increases in Medicaid co-pays, By Misty Williams, July 14, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Children could be among the hardest hit by proposed increases in co-pays for Medicaid enrollees and the creation of co-pays for families in the state’s PeachCare for Kids health care program starting this fall. A plan to double existing co-pays for inpatient hospital services to $25 is also among the changes proposed by the Georgia Department of Community Health that would save the state an estimated $4.2 million. Co-pays for prescription drugs, vision care and other services would also climb under the plan outlined at a department board meeting Thursday. Children ages 6 and older enrolled in PeachCare would be the most dramatically affected by the changes, which would take effect Sept. 1, since those families don’t currently have co-pays, said Jerry Dubberly, the state’s Medicaid division chief. PeachCare provides health care to more than 200,000 children through age 18 who don’t qualify for Medicaid and have family incomes up to 235 percent of the federal poverty level…”
- Fewer Utah doctors to treat Medicaid patients, By Kirsten Stewart, July 10, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “When people ask family practitioner Ray Ward if he does charity care, he likes to joke, ‘Yes, I take Medicaid.’ It means making less money, but the Bountiful doctor does it out of a sense of duty. ‘I still come out OK at the end of the year,’ he says. ‘So far, I haven’t had to turn anyone away. I still accept [Medicaid] patients.’ Physicians like Ward, however, are in increasingly short supply. In Utah the number of doctors who accept Medicaid has shrunk 25 percent in 11 years. This year, 3,166 doctors are certified to bill the low-income health program, down from 4,210 in 2000. That’s just over half of the state’s 5,844 practicing physicians. Meanwhile, Medicaid enrollment, now at about 244,470, is swelling with no immediate end in sight…”