States must cut health care programs, By Julie Appleby, February 10, 2011, USA Today: “Lisa Huff says the state-funded Disability Lifeline program in Washington state has lived up to its name, helping her get counseling for depression, treatment for diabetes and support for her ultimate goal: getting a job. Now the program for low-income, temporarily disabled residents is one of many on the chopping block in Washington, where lawmakers face stark choices in closing a projected shortfall of $4.6 billion in their next two-year budget, 2011-13. At risk are some of the very programs seen as national models: a state-subsidized Basic Health insurance plan for low-income residents who don’t qualify for federal help – the first of its kind when it began 20 years ago – and services that help seniors and the disabled stay out of nursing homes, as well as insurance for 27,000 undocumented children…”
Tag: Health care subsidies
State Budget Cuts – California, Pennsylvania
- Deep social services cuts outlined in California, By Jesse McKinley, January 10, 2011, New York Times: “Workers were removing the ornaments from the Christmas tree at the Capitol here on Monday morning, and much the same mood filled the legislative chambers as Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his Grinch-like budget. It included $12.5 billion in spending cuts, with a 10 percent cut in take-home pay for some state employees and deep reductions in social services. He also suggested a five-year extension of a bundle of taxes, a plan that requires voter approval, setting the stage for a potentially contentious special election in June. The budget is meant to address an estimated $25.4 billion deficit, just the latest shortfall for a state that has experienced a drumbeat of bad economic news in recent years. But Mr. Brown, who took office last week, cast the blame even further, saying the state’s leaders had spent the last decade balancing their books with ‘gimmicks and tricks and unrealistic expectations that pushed this state deeper and deeper into debt.’ But that period, Mr. Brown repeatedly emphasized, was over…”
- Pennsylvania subsidized health insurance for low-income people to end, By Don Sapatkin, January 12, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania’s subsidized health insurance for low-income working people will likely end next month, officials on Gov.-elect Tom Corbett’s transition team said Tuesday, leaving more than 40,000 people with less palatable options and dashing the hopes of more than 400,000 on the waiting list. ‘AdultBasic is not sustainable,’ said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the transition, referring to the insurance program that began eight years ago under Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, and was expanded by outgoing Gov. Rendell, a Democrat. Staff for the incoming and outgoing governors traded accusations Tuesday about who was responsible for the program’s demise, but both agreed that the money – a combination of tobacco-settlement revenues and donations from the state’s four Blue Cross plans – would run out around Feb. 28 for the fiscal year that ends June 30, and that no good alternative was in place…”
- Corbett team negotiates health care for working poor, By Brad Bumsted, January 11, 2011, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Leaders of Republican Gov.-elect Tom Corbett’s transition team said yesterday they worked out a plan with insurance companies to continue providing coverage to the working poor, but at significantly higher premiums than people pay now. Corbett’s team charged that the outgoing administration of Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell unnecessarily delayed notification to people in the adultBasic program and failed to live up to an agreement to provide state money to extend the program. Coverage under the program expires Feb. 28 because of a shortage of money. About 45,000 people receive adultBasic coverage…”
Long-Term Unemployment
- Without COBRA subsidy, health care would require 79% of jobless benefits, By Deb Price, June 6, 2010, Detroit News: “Newly laid-off workers in Michigan face average monthly COBRA health care premiums of $1,019, which would gobble up more than three-quarters of their jobless benefits, according to a report released today by an advocacy group urging Congress to help. ‘The elimination of COBRA subsidies means that people losing their jobs will also lose their health care coverage,’ said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. ‘Such a loss of health coverage flies in the face of the recently enacted health reform legislation that is intended to expand health coverage to tens of millions of people.’ The House passed a slimmed-down $102 billion jobs bill May 28 that dropped a proposal to extend eligibility for the federal COBRA subsidy through the end of the year. The result is workers who lost their jobs before June 1 get the COBRA health care subsidy — a 65 percent subsidy of health care premiums for up to 15 months. But those laid off after June 1 aren’t eligible…”
- Long-term jobless facing longer odds in job market, By Jeannine Aversa (AP), June 6, 2010, Wilmington News Journal: “If you lose your job these days, it’s worth scrambling to find a new one — fast. After six months of unemployment, your chances of landing work dwindle. The proportion of people jobless for six months or more has accelerated in the past year and now makes up 46 percent of the unemployed. That’s the highest percentage on records dating to 1948. By late summer or early fall, they are expected to make up half of all jobless Americans. Economists say those out of work for six months or more risk becoming less and less employable. Their skills can erode, their confidence falter, their contacts dry up. Their growing ranks also will keep pressure on Congress to keep extending jobless benefits, which now run for up to 99 weeks. Overall, the economy has created a net 982,000 jobs this year. But for Jeff Martinez and the record 6.76 million others who have struck out for six months or more, their struggles are getting worse, not better…”