Kids Count report released at New Mexico Capitol, Associated Press, January 15, 2013, Santa Fe New Mexican: “A New Mexico children’s advocacy group on Tuesday presented the latest troubling statistics on child poverty, teen birth rates and math and reading proficiency during the first day of the legislative session, hoping to spur action by lawmakers. Officials with New Mexico Voices for Children and others gathered at the state Capitol to release the annual New Mexico Kids Count report. It shows 42 percent of New Mexico children now live in single-parent households, and the state ranks last when it comes to the reading proficiency of fourth-graders. Overall, New Mexico ranks 49th in child well-being, behind Mississippi…”
Tag: New Mexico
State Medicaid Programs
- Feds allow limited cuts to Medicaid, not to level LePage wanted, By Matthew Stone, January 8, 2013, Bangor Daily News: “The federal government will allow Maine to make limited cuts to its Medicaid program, but not to the extent Gov. Paul LePage ’s administration sought last year as it looked to close a $20 million budget hole. The state will book only a fifth of the originally projected savings as a result. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified state officials on Monday that they can cut about 12,600 low-income parents and caretakers from Maine’s Medicaid rolls and cut or reduce coverage for about 8,300 elderly residents who also qualify for Medicare and rely on Medicaid support to purchase prescription drugs. The federal government, however, didn’t allow the LePage administration to cut coverage for about 6,500 19- and 20-year-olds or cut off coverage for as many parents and caretakers as the administration and Republican lawmakers had sought…”
- Low-income kids shuffled onto Medi-Cal, By Victoria Colliver, January 4, 2013, San Francisco Chronicle: “On Tuesday, California started dismantling a popular health care program for low-income children by shifting nearly 200,000 young people into the massive Medi-Cal program, a move many health advocates fear will disrupt their care. And this is just the first phase of the transition away from the program called Healthy Families. By August, the nearly 900,000 people in the program will be shifted into Medi-Cal. The move is expected to save the state about $58 million in health care costs in 2013-14 and more than $70 million a year when Healthy Families is fully phased out…”
- New Mexico to join Medicaid expansion program, By Dennis Domrzalski, January 9, 2013, Albuquerque Business First: “Gov. Susana Martinez said Wednesday that New Mexico will join the Medicaid expansion program under the federal Affordable Care Act. The decision means an additional 170,000 low-income adults will be eligible for health care under the joint federal-state program. The expansion will take effect in January 2014. More than 530,000 New Mexicans already receive health care through Medicaid…”
State Medicaid Programs – Maine, New Mexico
- LePage’s claims that Maine’s Medicaid spending is above average are true, By Clarke Canfield (AP), February 20, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “In his relentless demands for steep Medicaid cuts, Gov. Paul LePage has said Maine spends far more per capita than other states on Medicaid and is high above the national average. Whether you support or oppose LePage’s cost-cutting proposals, he’s right. Maine had the nation’s fifth-highest Medicaid coverage rate in fiscal year 2009, 27.8 percent, behind California, New Mexico, Louisiana and Vermont, according to the latest statistics for Maine from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The national rate for the same period was 21 percent. Maine’s Medicaid expenses for that year amounted to $1,890 per resident. That’s 61 percent higher than the national average of $1,173 per person, according to CMMS statistics…”
- New Mexico proposes to overhaul Medicaid program, By Barry Massey, February 21, 2012, February 21, 2012, Boston Globe: “Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration is proposing to overhaul a program that provides health care to a fourth of the state’s population, and the changes could require some needy New Mexicans to dig into their pockets to pay a fee if they go to an emergency room for medical care that’s not considered an emergency. One of the goals of the planned revision is to slow the rate of growth in Medicaid, which accounts for 16 percent of this year’s state budget and costs New Mexico taxpayers nearly $1 billion…”