Michigan jobless crowd state aid offices, By Chris Christoff, November 22, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “Michigan’s welfare system is gorged with new clients who often wait hours in crowded state offices to get food stamps and medical care. People such as Tricia Baysdell, 30, of Troy, who, like many, is battling the worst economy of her life. Last week, she waited five hours with her 9-year-old son at the Department of Human Services office in Madison Heights to apply for food assistance and Medicaid. She gave up waiting so she could pick up her other two children from school. Baysdell’s husband was laid off this month from his $70,000-a-year job at an auto supplier. He has been diagnosed with chronic leukemia and can’t receive unemployment pay because he can no longer work…”
Demand for public assistance tied to job losses, By Joan Barron, November 23, 2009, Casper Tribune: “With Wyoming’s unemployment rate topping the 7 percent mark, workers in Department of Family Services field offices in Wyoming are seeing more and more people lining up for food stamps and other public help. Heather Babbitt, Family Services economic assistance administrator; Coleen Collins, deputy economic assistance administrator; Jacqueline Petroski, consultant with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, and Juliette Rule, public information officer, gave an update last week on what the department is doing to help field workers handle the higher workload. ‘I think what happens is we see more people walking in the door, with the recession, to see what they’re eligible for,’ Collins said. The increase has been primarily in the food stamp and Medicaid programs…”
State’s poor being shifted to different medical plan, By Chen May Yee, November 10, 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune: “The Pawlenty administration, which faced criticism for proposing to eliminate a state health-care program for the indigent, has decided to transfer most of those recipients to a subsidized insurance plan for the working poor. The General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program for adults making less than $7,800 a year is scheduled to go away March 1, potentially leaving some 36,000 recipients — many with chronic illnesses and often homeless and mentally ill — without regular access to medical care. Now some 28,000 will be automatically enrolled in MinnesotaCare, a subsidized health insurance plan. The remainder are those whose GAMC eligibility is running out or who already are applying for MinnesotaCare…”
More Alaska Medicaid kids may get braces, Associated Press, November 10, 2009, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: “The state of Alaska must pay for braces on the teeth of foster children and young people on Medicaid who need them, a Superior Court judge ruled Monday. Judge William Morse issued an order in a lawsuit brought by an advocacy group for foster children called Facing Foster Care in Alaska. He granted a preliminary injunction against a state rule that limits braces to severe conditions such as cleft palate. The state argued that Facing Foster Care does not have the right to bring a lawsuit. Morse disagreed and ruled the state cannot use its own regulations to limit services that are required by federal code. The braces still have to be medically necessary – not just for the sake of appearance…”
KidCare numbers drop; Medicaid kids rise, By Bill McCarthy, November 9, 2009, Wyoming Tribune Eagle: “The number of children on Wyoming Kid Care CHIP is declining, but the number of children on Medicaid is going up. Bob Peck, chief financial officer for the Wyoming Department of Health, said one explanation could be that parents are losing their jobs. Formerly working parents who had their children on the Kid Care program for child health insurance may be having to enroll their families directly into Medicaid, he said…”
