• Indiana trims Medicaid payments to hospitals, By Mary Beth Schneider, November 10, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Hospitals would get 5 percent less money from the state for caring for Medicaid patients under cuts announced today by the state. Gov. Mitch Daniels last week called for emergency budget cuts as the state’s revenue continues to fall short of projections. State tax collections already are a half-billion dollars short of what was collected at this time last year. To make the cuts, Daniels said state employees would not be getting pay raises, and asked agencies to come up with cuts, including the Family and Social Services Administration which administers Medicaid in Indiana…”
• Pain of budget cuts is hitting home, By Mary Beth Schneider, November 11, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “State budget cuts will begin to take a tangible toll on Hoosiers, from the pay in prison guards’ pockets to possibly the level of service people receive at hospitals. Faced with withering revenues, Gov. Mitch Daniels last week ordered state agencies to slash their expenses by 10 percent this fiscal year, on top of 10 percent cuts made last year. On Tuesday, the Family and Social Services Administration announced that it will reach some of its goal by cutting the amount it pays hospitals for caring for Medicaid patients by 5 percent beginning Jan. 1, a move that will save the state $10.6 million in this fiscal year…”
• Ind. budget cuts include $34 million in social services, By Ken Kusmer (AP), November 10, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Indiana’s human services agency said Tuesday it will slice $34 million from its budget by paying hospitals less to treat Medicaid patients, renegotiating contracts with most of its vendors, moving some offices and leaving about 400 jobs unfilled. However, the Family and Social Services administration will not reduce its Medicaid payments to doctors or cut ‘vital services’ to the young, elderly, disabled and needy Indiana residents who receive social safety-net benefits, agency officials said…”

• Unemployment tops 10 percent again _ and it’s tougher off the job than a generation ago, By Jeannine Aversa (AP), November 7, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “It hurts more to be unemployed now than the last time the jobless rate hit 10 percent. Americans have more than triple the debt they had in 1982, and less than half the savings. They spend 10 weeks longer off the job. And a bigger share of them have no health insurance, leaving them one medical emergency away from financial ruin. For these reasons, the unemployed are more vulnerable today to foreclosure and bankruptcy than they were a generation ago…”
• Debt levels leave low paid at risk of homelessness, By Nick Mathiason, November 11, 2009, The Guardian: “Britain’s 14.3 million low earners are in danger of being sucked into a whirlpool of poverty as official figures are expected to show today that the number of unemployed has passed through 2.5 million for the first time in 15 years. Research by the insurance tycoon Clive Cowdery’s thinktank, Resolution Foundation, shows low-income households - with an average of £15,800 at their disposal - are walking an increasingly precarious financial tightrope. It has found that 24% of low-wage households spend more than a quarter of their monthly income on debt - twice the number from three years ago. The study shows nearly a third of low-income households have high loan-to-value mortgages and are in negative equity, making them vulnerable to homelessness if they lose their job…”

State considers getting out of handling Hawaii public housing, By Mary Vorsino, November 11, 2009, Honolulu Advertiser: “The Hawaii Public Housing Authority is considering a radical solution to decades of backlogged repairs, aging projects and limited resources: selling properties or units and ending state oversight of public housing. The proposal, which officials stressed is still very preliminary, is part of a draft ‘vision’ before the housing authority board that includes ’self-sufficient families living in units that they own that were previously public housing’ and the authority - the largest affordable-housing landlord in the Islands - ‘no longer in existence.’ The draft says the ‘public housing shelter model has been broken for 40 years’ and ‘having an ownership stake in their housing encourages people to take pride in their physical surroundings and become responsible for their future.’ Under the proposal, the agency would sell some units to tenants and also redevelop rental projects under a mixed-income model aimed at deconcentrating poverty while preserving affordability…”