Tribe takes control of child welfare from state, By Jennifer Sullivan, March 28, 2012, Seattle Times: “Jessie Scheibner’s eyes cloud with tears and her voice trembles as she talks about the day, almost 70 years ago, when a stranger’s car pulled up to her parents’ home on the Port Gamble S’Klallam Reservation and took her and her two sisters away. The memories of that car ride when she was 3 and the years spent in one foster home after another are hazy. Foster care was difficult enough, but Scheibner, now 72, clearly recalls being ashamed of her dark hair, brown skin and Native American roots as she bounced from home to home off the reservation. She eventually was reunited with her mother and her sisters when she was 7, but the emotional scars remain. For decades, children who were removed from their homes in child-welfare cases among the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and other tribes across the United States were taken off their reservations and placed in the homes of nontribal members. Because individual states handled child-welfare issues for Native-American tribes, including foster care, abused and neglected children were forced to leave their communities and, often, their cultures…”
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Medicaid Costs – Florida
- Gov. Rick Scott signs Medicaid billing changes; may cost counties $326 million, By Tia Mitchell, March 29, 2012, Miami Herald: “Against the wishes of counties and tea party leaders, Gov. Rick Scott signed a controversial bill into law Thursday that will change the way counties are billed for Medicaid costs and could set up a legal showdown. If nothing changes, counties could be forced to pay the state an additional $325.5 million in the coming years in disputed Medicaid bills. ‘Nobody really knows what this is going to mean to our budget,’ said Gretchen Harkins, Broward County director of intergovernmental affairs. The Florida Association of Counties has convened a task force to recommend future steps, such as seeking an injunction or filing a lawsuit. Scott took the unusual step of submitting a letter to the Secretary of State’s office explaining why he signed the bill, HB 5301. Scott acknowledged the counties’ concerns and vowed to work with them to resolve years of disagreements with the Agency for Health Care Administration on how much they owe for Medicaid…”
- Fla. leaders fear spike in Medicaid costs, By John Kennedy, March 30, 2012, Palm Beach Post: “For Florida Gov. Rick Scott and leading Republican legislators, winding through the thicket of legal arguments and ideology surrounding the Affordable Care Act usually lands them on a single issue: Money. The Affordable Care Act expands the number of people eligible for Medicaid while also raising the minimum coverage. Workers losing jobs and health coverage during the economic downturn already swelled the ranks of low-income, elderly and disabled Floridians covered by the state-federal program from 2.1 million in 2007 to 3 million this year, and the number is forecast to grow to 5 million by 2020 under the new law. The federal government will absorb all of the initial expansion costs, but states will have to start paying a percentage in 2016 if they want to draw federal money . The states’ share for those becoming eligible under the new law will max out at 10 percent in 2020, but even that, state officials say, is expected to be an extra $1 billion in Florida…”
Welfare Reform – Michigan
Court: Some Michigan welfare recipients wrongly cut, By Kathy Barks Hoffman (AP), March 28, 2012, Detroit News: “Michigan can’t take away welfare benefits under a five-year federal limit if recipients still qualify for cash assistance under state law, a judge ruled Tuesday. Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Geoffrey Neithercut said in his ruling that state Department of Human Services Director Maura Corrigan “exceeded her authority” by ending benefits for more than 11,000 families last October because they had reached the federal limit even though they remained eligible under state limits. Michigan lawmakers in 2007 adopted a four-year limit that had several exceptions, then approved stricter enforcement last year…”
US Unemployment
Unemployment rates fall in most US states as job growth picks up nationwide, Associated Press, March 30, 2012, Washington Post: “Unemployment rates fell last month in most U.S. states, including in some hit hardest during the recession. The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates declined in 29 states and rose in 8. Rates were unchanged in 13 states and Washington, D.C. The improvement was broader last month: rates fell in 45 states in January. Still, job growth was more widespread than in previous months. Employers added jobs in 42 states, the most in almost a year. Ohio, Texas and New York reported the biggest job gains…”
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- Food stamp program under fire, By Pamela M. Prah, March 23, 2012, Stateline.org: “The odds of winning one of Michigan’s high-stakes lottery games are 1 in 10,000, but the probability of two people hitting million-dollar jackpots and still be collecting food stamps has to be even more remote. That is exactly what happened in Michigan, stoking a nationwide debate over whether the program is becoming an out-of-control entitlement. A lottery winner ‘can certainly afford his own food, and should not be able to get more money from hard-working taxpayers after his big pay out,’ says Michigan state Representative Dave Agema, who has introduced proposals aimed at ensuring lottery winners aren’t on the public dole. ‘Michigan’s taxpayers have an absolute right to know when their tax dollars are going to millionaires,’ he said. While these kinds of cases are seen as rare, the $75 billion spent last year on food stamps across the country is coming under more scrutiny, as Congress struggles to pare down the federal debt. With a record 45 million Americans relying on food stamps, states and Congress are taking a closer look at who should get help paying for groceries…”
- Idaho bill would stagger food stamps, By Holly Beech, March 29, 2012, Idaho Press-Tribune: “Grocers are asking Health and Welfare to distribute food stamps – or SNAP benefits – over a number of days rather than just the first of the month. But for the second year in a row, a bill that would answer that request probably won’t make it to the governor’s desk. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars more to stagger issuance, said Senate Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston. Lodge is holding the bill in committee after it glided through the House Friday, sponsored by Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa…”
- State panel to review EBT cards, with eye toward proper usage, By Conor Berry, March 28, 2012, MassLive.com: “The panel created to examine potential misuse and abuse of electronic benefit transfer cards – better known as EBT cards and formerly known as Food Stamps – is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Thursday in Boston. The session is the final meeting before the EBT Commission releases an April 1 report with recommendations on how to improve local enforcement of the federal program, which in Massachusetts is administered by the state Department of Transitional Assistance. The program, which is aimed at helping low-income households pay for food, is known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The federal Food Stamp program officially changed its name to SNAP in October 2008…”
Healthcare Law and Medicaid Expansion
- Justices suggest Medicaid expansion is unconstitutional, By David G. Savage and Noam N. Levey, March 28, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “The Supreme Court’s conservative justices took aim Wednesday afternoon at a final key piece of President Obama’s healthcare law, suggesting it was unconstitutional to require states to expand their Medicaid programs to cover more poor Americans. The states have ‘no realistic choice,’ said Justice Anthony Kennedy, effectively accepting the argument by 26 states challenging the law that they are being unjustly forced to administer a massive Medicaid expansion. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr. echoed Kennedy’s concerns, signaling their willingness to invalidate yet another part of the healthcare overhaul Obama signed two years ago…”
- Medicaid expansion: What’s in it for Utah?, By Kirsten Stewart, March 28, 2012, Salt Lake Tribune: “It has drawn less media attention, but Wednesday’s arguments on health reform’s expansion of Medicaid are a big deal for states. If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the expansion, Medicaid will be the path to coverage for more than a third of Utah’s uninsured, about 139,000 adults with incomes of less than $15,000 a year. And the feds will pick up most of the tab: $4.1 billion to $4.7 billion by 2019, estimates the Kaiser Foundation. States, too, will have to pony up cash; nothing for the first three years, but eventually up to 10 percent of the total bill. In Utah, that mounts to between $174 million and $227 million by 2019, Kaiser found – a figure that strikes fear in conservatives…”
State Budget and Spending on the Poor – New York
Cuomo, Legislature strike $132.5B budget deal; will be 2nd straight on-time budget, By Michael Gormley, Schenectady Daily Gazette: “New York is poised to embark on a large economic development program, provide more assistance to the poor, and increase spending on public schools under a budget deal announced Tuesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders. The basic welfare grant for poor families would increase by 10 percent this year, Cuomo will have money to provide incentives for improved schools, and billions in state and federal dollars will be committed to economic development and rebuilding the state’s infrastructure, guided in part by a ‘New York Works’ task force to improve coordination of the spending…”
Kids Count Report – Colorado
- Annual survey says kids’ aren’t slipping into poverty so quickly, By Karen Augé, March 27, 2012, Denver Post: “The good news is that the rate at which Colorado’s kids are slipping into the ranks of the poor has slowed down. The findings, contained in the 2012 Kids Count in Colorado report, released today by the Colorado Children’s Campaign, are cause for cautious optimism, not celebration, the campaign’s executive director Chris Watney said. ‘It’s too soon to tell what this means long-term,’ Watney said. ‘We still have to remember we’ve doubled the number of kids living in poverty’ over the past decade. ‘We need to think about how we can mitigate the impacts on those kids,’ she said. While the percentage of Colorado’s children living in poverty remains comparatively low, the rate at which childhood poverty has grown in the state has been the fastest in the nation for much of the past decade…”
- Kids’ well-being varies across counties, By Rebecca Jones, March 27, 2012, Education News Colorado: “The dramatic yearly increases in poverty that have put hundreds of thousands of young Coloradans at risk for the past decade seem finally to have slowed, but the well-being of the state’s children still depends greatly on the county in which they live, a new report shows. Children in Douglas, Broomfield and Larimer counties appear to be faring the best, according to the 2012 KIDS COUNT in Colorado report, released today. Children in Adams, Morgan and Denver counties rank the lowest statewide on 12 key indicators of overall well-being…”
Medicaid Programs – Virginia, Illinois
- Initiative places Medicaid recipients back home, By Elizabeth Simpson, March 25, 2012, Virginian-Pilot: “When Linda Archie moved into a Virginia Beach nursing home five years ago, she thought her days of being independent were over. Archie, 71, is paralyzed on one side of her body because of brain aneurysms. She had to get used to sharing a room, eating and sleeping according to schedule, and putting up with the assumption that ‘I wasn’t right up here,’ she said, tapping her head. That’s where they were wrong. In 2009, someone showed up at her bedside with a question: Did she want to move out? She did. ‘I felt like I had my life back,’ said Archie, who’s been living in an apartment for the past two years. It’s a question required by the government to be asked of nursing home residents at least four times a year, and it’s bolstered by a federal initiative called ‘Money Follows the Person’ that helps people on Medicaid move out of long-term care facilities…”
- Cutting Medicaid drug spending not a simple task, By Carla K. Johnson (AP), March 25, 2012, Springfield State Journal-Register: “The search for Medicaid savings might drive some lawmakers to drugs – examining drug spending, that is. Medications for 2.7 million poor and disabled Illinoisans now cost the Medicaid program more than $1 billion annually. Medicaid covers drugs for a wide variety of illnesses, from asthma to schizophrenia, and the cost per prescription ranges from $1 for aspirin to $1,600 for an HIV drug. So, for lawmakers trying to figure out how to meet Gov. Pat Quinn’s goal of cutting the $14 billion program by $2.7 billion, it makes sense to scrutinize the big-ticket cost of the pharmaceuticals…”
Affordable Care Act
- Medicaid could be in Supreme Court’s sights, By David G. Savage and Noam N. Levey, March 25, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “Ever since the Democratic Congress passed President Obama’s healthcare law, critics have focused their ire on the requirement that all Americans have health insurance beginning in 2014. But some legal experts believe – and progressives worry – the Supreme Court’s conservatives will instead target another mandate in the new law: the requirement that states expand the Medicaid rolls and provide subsidized healthcare for as many as 17 million more low-income people. On Wednesday, the third day of oral arguments on the law, 26 Republican-led states will argue that the federal pressure to expand Medicaid to all low-income Americans violates states’ rights…”
- Health care law puts free clinics at a crossroads, By Elana Gordon, March 25, 2012, National Public Radio: “Free health clinics have long been places people turn to when they don’t have health insurance or any money to pay for care. But the health law’s expansion of coverage puts free clinics in uncharted territory. While the law goes before the Supreme Court this week, health providers are already gearing up for a surge in patients with insurance. Around the country, hundreds of free clinics have been established over the past 50 years to treat patients like Patsy Duarte…”
- Michiganders divided on law reforming health care as Supreme Court takes up challenges, By Patricia Anstett and Robin Erb, March 25, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will open three days of hearings on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care reform law, one of the biggest cases before the high court in decades. The law, the signature piece of legislation in the president’s administration, will require most Americans without health insurance to buy coverage by 2014 or face penalties. It would also expand Medicaid, require coverage of pre-existing conditions, bar insurers from placing lifetime dollar limits on essential benefits and usher in dozens of other changes affecting everyone from hospitals to businesses to individuals. Some of the changes have already been implemented since the bill was signed into law on March 23, 2010…”
- 500,000 more in Michigan to be eligible for Medicaid coverage, By Robin Erb, March 26, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “A half-million more Michiganders will be eligible for Medicaid, the government-funded health program for poor people, when the most sweeping provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act take effect in 2014. Supporters of the law say covering more poor people is not just socially responsible, it ultimately saves money: Better care keeps chronic conditions in check. But opponents will argue this week to the U.S. Supreme Court that Congress is overstepping its bounds by pushing the expansion onto states, which will lose their federal Medicaid funds if eligibility is not expanded…”
Affordable Housing in US Cities
Lack of rental units a hurdle for low-income residents, By Alan J. Heavens, March 23, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “For many of the last decade’s early years, construction of rental units (also known as multifamily housing) played second fiddle – sometimes even third fiddle – to building for-sale homes. In Philadelphia and other major cities, conversion of rental apartments to condominiums was the rule. In the suburbs, apartment construction was blocked by the shortage and price of adequately sized land parcels, endless state and local permit processes, and not-in-my-backyard opposition. Back then, from the federal government on down, the emphasis was on making everyone a homeowner – whether they could afford it or not. As a result, when the bottom fell out of the for-sale market in 2006-07 and people began looking for rentals, the pickings were slim. Today, census data show that of the 115.4 million U.S. households, renters account for 38.5 million, or 33 percent of the total, and that the rental-vacancy rate is at its lowest point since 2001, before the housing boom’s start…”
Proposed Medicaid Cuts – Illinois
Quinn’s proposed $2.7 billion Medicaid cut might be biggest in nation, By Doug Finke, March 22, 2012, Springfield State Journal-Register: “Illinois may be trying to cut more from its Medicaid program in a shorter period of time than any other state, Illinois senators were told Thursday. Joy Johnson Wilson, health policy director for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said other states have made significant cuts in their Medicaid programs, but have done it over two years rather than one. Gov. Pat Quinn said in his budget proposal that he wants to reduce Medicaid spending by $2.7 billion next year. A working group of state lawmakers is meeting to find ways to make the cuts. Options include beefing up determination of eligibility so that people who don’t qualify are removed, eliminating or paring back services that aren’t required by federal regulations and reducing rates paid to doctors and hospitals that treat Medicaid patients…”
Proposed Cuts to General Assistance – Maine
General assistance cuts proposed by LePage affect most needy, critics say, By Eric Russell, March 22, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “Roberta Duncan was three weeks shy of her 86th birthday when she was laid to rest last December in an unmarked grave in the ‘paupers section’ of Bangor’s Mount Hope Cemetery. Bangor Area Homeless Shelter director Dennis Marble was one of only six people present for her burial. The others were: two shelter staff members, a Franciscan Friar, an outreach worker and an employee of a local funeral home. Duncan had no family locally but was well-known in the Bangor community – at least to people like Marble. In most ways, she was a lot like many of the people who visit the homeless shelter on a given day looking for a meal or a bed…”
Drug Testing and Assistance Programs
- SC bill would require drug tests for welfare, By Seanna Cox (AP), March 22, 2012, Charlotte Observer: “Opponents of a bill requiring all welfare applicants in South Carolina to pass a drug test said Thursday the costly proposal would violate the constitution, but its sponsor said it’s a requirement constituents want. Rep. Tom Young, R-Aiken, said if someone is using illegal drugs, they should not get a taxpayer-funded benefit. ‘There is no justification,’ he said. ‘How do we know those kids are getting the benefit of the welfare money versus their parents spending them on illegal drugs?’ Opponents said the legislation is unwarranted and fuels an inaccurate stereotype of poor people who need a boost. A House panel postponed voting on the bill Thursday. Young’s bill mimics a law in Florida that took effect last July and was blocked by a federal judge in October. During those interim months, less than 4 percent of applicants in that state tested positive…”
- Bill to drug test welfare recipients advances, March 21, 2012, Mansfield News Journal: “A proposal that would drug test people as a condition of receiving welfare advanced Wednesday evening in the Senate. The measure sponsored by Republican Sen. Stacey Campfield of Knoxville passed the Senate Health and Welfare Committee 7-1. The legislation is different from an original proposal that would have broadly tested people. In an opinion this week on that proposal and other pending bills that seek to drug test welfare recipients, Tennessee’s attorney general said the requirement would violate federal laws regulating Social Security, the federal food stamp program and the state Medicaid plan…”
Poverty Measurement – India
- Who are the poor in India?, By Soutik Biswas, March 21, 2012, BBC News: “Who are the poor in India? The fact is nobody quite knows. There are various estimates on the exact number of poor in India, and the counts have been mired in controversy. This week the Planning Commission said 29.8% of India’s 1.21 billion people live below the poverty line, a sharp drop from 37.2% in 2004-2005. (This means means around 360 million people currently live in poverty.) But one estimate suggests this figure could be as high as 77%. The problem, believe many, is that the new count is based on fixing the poverty line for a person living on 28.65 rupees (56 cents/35p) a day in cities and 22.42 rupees (44 cents/33p) a day in villages…”
- ‘Sharp drop’ in India poverty due to welfare programmes, March 20, 2012, BBC News: “Poverty in India has dropped sharply, the country’s Planning Commission has said. From 2004-2005 to 2009-2010, the rate fell from 37.2% to 29.8%, which means around 360 million people currently live in poverty. Rural poverty has declined faster than urban poverty during this period. The Planning Commission said the main reason for the reduction in poverty was the government’s increased spending on rural welfare programmes…”
Jobless Benefits – Ohio
Many to lose jobless benefits April 7, By Catherine Candisky, March 22, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “Ohio’s falling unemployment is good news for many workers – unless you are among the thousands who have been out of a job for a long time. With a 7.7 percent jobless rate, Ohio no longer qualifies for as many weeks of emergency unemployment benefits provided by Congress to help states weather the recession. The bottom line: 18,600 jobless workers will exhaust benefits the week ending April 7…”
Youth Minimum Wage Rates – UK
Minimum wage frozen for young people, March 19, 2012, The Telegraph: “The adult rate of the minimum wage is to rise by 11p to £6.19 an hour from October, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced today. But the rates for younger workers will be frozen at £4.98 for 18 to 20-year-olds and £3.68 for 16 to 17-year-olds. Apprentices will enjoy a 5p increase in their minimum wage to £2.65 an hour. The changes are in line with the recommendations of the independent Low Pay Commission and come into effect on October 1…”
Joblessness Among Veterans
Some go extra mile to hire growing pool of jobless veterans, By Gregg Zoroya, March 20, 2012, USA Today: “Thomas Garlic and Steve Castillo found that their time in combat in Iraq and their service in the Army added up to little or nothing when they became civilians looking for work. ‘It was very depressing,’ says Garlic, 26, who lives with his wife and 5-year-old son outside Chicago. He was discharged in 2008 with post-traumatic stress disorder and has been largely jobless ever since. ‘Every time I would go up to bat, I would just strike out.’ ’When I first got out (in 2008), I had a lot of motivation, a lot of high self-esteem, and everything was good,’ says Castillo, 31, a medically retired Army staff sergeant from Biloxi, Miss. But steady work eluded him as well. He lives on temporary, often-menial labor and an $1,800-per-month government disability check for his combat injuries. ‘We’re barely scratching by,’ Castillo says. As the nation grapples with finding work for its newest generation of combat veterans, job experts say that basic roadblocks persist for those willing to hire them: how to find these veterans and how to train them in new, non-military skills…”
Child Welfare Computer System – Oregon
Oregon’s $40 million child welfare computer upgrade has glitches, some serious, By Michelle Cole, March 20, 2012, The Oregonian: “Oregon child welfare managers have not had access to statewide performance data showing how quickly local offices are responding to abuse reports and other information. Foster parents have waited for payments. And caseworkers say they are spending time putting information into a computer that should be spent with families. A $40 million computer upgrade that went live in August, after being delayed nearly a year, has suffered all kinds of problems, though top agency managers stress that none of them has put children in danger. Dangerous or not, the Department of Human Services’ ‘OrKids’ project provides yet another example of government’s difficulties with large-scale technology projects…”
Benefit Debit Cards and Fees – Reno, NV
Welfare abuse rare in Nevada, but card users paying avoidable fees, By Frank X. Mullen Jr., March 19, 2012, Reno Gazette-Journal: “Welfare recipients in Nevada were charged more than $300,000 in avoidable automatic teller machine fees in 2011, and a small percentage of transactions took place in casinos, liquor stores and at sites in 34 other states, according to a Reno Gazette-Journal analysis of 65,500 welfare debit-card transactions. The data show about 97 percent of withdrawals occurred at ATMs or point-of-sale debit card machines in Nevada at food markets, convenience stores, malls, restaurants and banks. No evidence was found of the cards’ use in strip clubs – which has been a problem in Colorado and some other states – or in any of the Silver State’s legal brothels. Four of the 1,600 out-of-state transactions were logged in major amusement parks, including Six Flags Magic Mountain in California, and two were in baseball stadiums. In Reno, from June to December last year, about 2 percent of transactions were at ATMs in liquor stores or bars and 0.3 percent (21) of 6,650 transactions took place in Reno casinos. The RGJ’s analysis shows the debit cards are overwhelmingly being used for the purposes of basic needs, rather than luxuries or travel, state officials said…”