Congress closes ’strip club loophole’, By Pamela M. Prah, February 28, 2012, Stateline.org: “States are now required to prevent welfare recipients from using ATM machines in casinos, liquor stores and strip clubs to spend or access their benefits. The new policy was tucked in the payroll tax cut bill that Congress passed earlier this month, which also extended the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or welfare block grant through the end of the fiscal year. The needy generally get welfare payments and other public assistance on debit cards known as Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, rather than checks. States now will have to adopt policies to block welfare benefits from being used in any EBT transaction in liquor stores, casinos, gaming estalishments or adult entertainment or risk losing federal funds. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will spell out exactly what kind of policies states must implement…”

• Medicaid billing fight could cost Florida counties, By Tia Mitchell, March 1, 2012, Tampa Bay Times: “Florida counties stand to lose nearly $300 million in state revenue over the next few years, a punishment of sorts for what the state says are unpaid Medicaid bills. But counties say much of what the state categorizes as delinquent bills are actually erroneous charges created by a faulty state billing system, and that the state’s decision to collect is masking a ploy to shift additional costs to local governments. Led by the Florida Association of Counties, local officials are begging legislators for a fix as House-Senate budget negotiations commence…”
• Kentucky auditor recommends changes in Medicaid program, By Deborah Yetter, March 1, 2012, Louisville Courier-Journal: “State Auditor Adam Edelen recommended Wednesday that the state consider removing mental-health services from its new Medicaid managed care system, citing an especially high number of complaints about access to care and medication. ‘There are areas within managed care where problems appear to be more systemic than others,’ Edelen said in an interview. ‘Behavioral health is one of those.’ The recommendation is among 10 that Edelen proposed to address problems with the managed care system the state launched Nov. 1 in an effort to save money. The problems include delays or the denial of medical care to patients and late payments, or in some cases none at all, to health-care providers. But Edelen’s suggestion that mental-health services be excluded from managed care generated the most enthusiasm among advocates, who said they had lobbied for exactly that before state officials launched the program…”

States consider drug testing welfare recipients, By Yamiche Alcindor, February 29, 2012, USA Today: “Getting welfare and food stamps may become tougher as 23 states around the USA seek to adopt stricter laws that would require public aid recipients to take drug tests. Florida law now requires all aid applicants to be drug tested while Arizona and Missouri require testing for anyone they ‘reasonably’ suspect of illegal drug use. For many, the proposed changes in states such as Wyoming, Illinois and Maryland will mean taking extra steps before receiving aid, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Resistance is likely to be heated, and the American Civil Liberties Union has already filed a challenge in Florida…”

• World’s extreme poverty cut in half since 1990, By Sudeep Reddy, February 29, 2012, Wall Street Journal: “The share of people living in extreme poverty around the world continued to decline in recent years despite financial crises and surging food prices, the World Bank said today. The bank said preliminary estimates for 2010 showed that the world’s extreme poverty rate - people living below $1.25 a day - had fallen to less than half of its 1990 value. That meets the first Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty from its 1990 level, before its 2015 deadline, the Washington-based development institution said…”
• WB sees progress against extreme poverty, February 29, 2012, The Himalayan: “In every region of the developing world, the percentage of people living on less than $1.25-a-day and the number of poor declined between 2005-2008, according to estimates released today by the World Bank (WB). This across-the-board reduction over a three-year monitoring cycle marks a first since the bank began monitoring extreme poverty. Similarly, South Asia witnessed the $1.25-a-day poverty rate fall from 61 per cent to 36 per cent between 1981 and 2005 and fell a further 3.5 percentage points between 2005 and 2008. The proportion of the population living in extreme poverty is now the lowest since 1981, the global agency said, adding that its methodology is based on consumption and income, adjusted for inflation within countries and for purchasing power differences across countries…”

• Make children the cornerstone of urban decision-making, urges Unicef, By Mark Tran, February 28, 2012, The Guardian: “Unicef has urged governments to put children at the heart of urban planning - and to improve services for all - since the majority of the world’s children will grow up in towns or cities rather than in rural areas. In its report, The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World, the UN agency said hundreds of millions of children who live in urban slums are being excluded from vital services, from clean water to education…”
• Split between rich and poor greater in cities, UNICEF reports, By Leslie Scrivener, February 28, 2012, Toronto Star: “Five-year-old Kiara appears well cared for - nicely dressed, well-fed and loved. Her hair shines. But she has worked with her family since she was three, selling trinkets in the subway trains of Buenos Aires. There have been mishaps: she has fallen onto the train tracks while playing, and last year she broke her arm in a train door. Almost half the world’s children live in cities. Their families are lured from their rural homes, hoping to find jobs for themselves and education for their children. It doesn’t always work out that way. ‘It’s heartbreaking for parents,’ says David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada. ‘They don’t want their children working on the street. They wish they had enough.’ In its annual report, released on Tuesday, UNICEF explores the struggles faced by families raising their offspring in the world’s slums, where one in three city-dwellers now live…”
• World’s slum children in desperate need, UNICEF says, By Robyn Dixon, February 28, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “You see them, night and day, in nearly every African city. They are ragged children dodging between the cars: beggars, shoeshine boys, teenage prostitutes, petty traders and porters carrying loads on their heads with thin, pinched faces and anxious eyes. They tap on car windows, begging, and wait by the highway desperate to sell their goods. Around half the people in the world live in cities and towns, a billion of them children, as the urban population spirals. Millions of children live in slums and shantytowns and they’re dying of the same illnesses that kill the rural poor, according to UNICEF: hunger, diarrhea and disease caused by poor sanitation and overcrowding…”

Plans to drug test welfare recipients get momentum, By Ben Neary and Ivan Moreno (AP), February 26, 2012, Deseret News: “Conservatives who say welfare recipients should have to pass a drug test to receive government assistance have momentum on their side. The issue has come up in the Republican presidential campaign, with front-runner Mitt Romney saying it’s an ‘excellent idea.’ Nearly two dozen states are considering plans this session that would make drug testing mandatory for welfare recipients, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. And Wyoming lawmakers advanced such a proposal this week. Driving the measures is a perception that people on public assistance are misusing the funds and that cutting off their benefits would save money for tight state budgets - even as statistics have largely proved both notions untrue…”

• Pregnancy medical homes gain momentum in North Carolina, By Christine Vestal, February 24, 2012, Stateline.org: “Like most southern states, North Carolina has a higher than average rate of infant deaths and premature births. So it made sense to Medicaid Director Craigan Gray, a trained obstetrician, to attack the problem head on. Shortly after taking over in 2009, he began a campaign to create a new kind of program that would identify Medicaid beneficiaries with high-risk pregnancies sooner than before and use proven medical procedures to help prevent problems at birth. Launched less than a year ago, Gray’s program, called pregnancy medical homes, is showing promise…”
• Sickest unsettled by state’s plans to change long-term care, By Catherine Candisky, February 27, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “The state plans sweeping changes to the way it provides long-term care and other health services to 190,000 Ohioans eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. ‘Dual eligibles’ are among the sickest and most expensive to care for. In Ohio, they make up 10 percent of the 2.1 million on Medicaid, yet they account for 46 percent of long-term-care costs. Gov. John Kasich’s administration wants to better coordinate their care. But details are sketchy, and that’s created a lot of worry for enrollees such as Carl Meyers, 86, of Westerville…”
• Mo. changing rules for Medicaid ‘spend down’ plan, By Wes Duplantier (AP), February 27, 2012, Southeast Missourian: “Some low-income seniors and people with disabilities in Missouri could have to pay more out of their pockets to qualify for Medicaid coverage under changes being initiated after the state realized it was running afoul of federal rules. About 24,000 Missouri residents qualify for Medicaid — even though their income is higher than the program’s federal limits — by ’spending down’ the difference between their monthly income and the federal eligibility limit. They do that in one of two ways — sending the state a cash payment, sort of like a monthly insurance premium, or by submitting medical bills that show they spent that excess income on medications and treatments. About one-third of the people in the program submit medical bills to satisfy their monthly ’spend down’ amount. The problem, as state officials told a Senate panel last week, is that the state might have been giving people too much credit toward their monthly ’spend down’ amount…”

• Analysis: More Utah children live in areas of poverty, By Brooke Adams, February 23, 2012, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah is among states with relatively few children living in areas where poverty is prevalent. That’s the good news. The bad news, according to a newly released study, is that the number of Utah children residing in poor neighborhoods increased 80 percent since 2000, with some 27,000 children now living in communities with high concentrations of poverty. Utah’s increase was more than triple the 25 percent increase notched across the country, based on a comparison of 2000 Census numbers and 2006-2010 data from the Census’ American Community Survey. Nationally, nearly 8 million children are now living in areas of concentrated poverty. Some states saw dramatic increases - such as Colorado, where numbers rose 360 percent to 72,000 children - while eight states recorded decreases, according to a Kids Count data snapshot from the Annie E. Casey Foundation…”
• More ND children in high poverty, By Helmut Schmidt, February 24, 2012, Dickinson Press: “More North Dakota children are living in areas of high poverty, putting them at risk for not getting proper food, housing or health care, and making it more likely that they could have severe behavioral and emotional problems, the Kids Count program announced Thursday. North Dakota data for 2010 indicates 7 percent of the state’s children, about 11,000, live in economically distressed areas - neighborhoods where at least 30 percent of residents live below the federal poverty line. That’s up from 5 percent in 2000, the Kids Count program at North Dakota State University reports…”
• Growing number of Kentucky kids in poverty, By Robyn L. Minor, February 23, 2012, Bowling Green Daily News: “Kentucky is one of 11 states where 30 percent or more of the population living in high poverty areas. That means a high percentage of children are living in those areas, and that has to be addressed, according to Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, which produces the Kids Count report. ‘Historically, almost one in four kids lived in poverty,’ Brooks said. ‘That went to one in four and now it is more than one in four. We’ve seen a 20 percent increase in children living in high poverty areas (during past decade). There are 20,000 more kids living in those high poverty areas than a decade ago.’ Kids Count, by looking at results of the American Community Survey published by the U.S. Census Bureau, estimated that between 2006 and 2010, 13 percent of the state’s children lived in areas where the poverty rate is 30 percent or higher…”
• Number of Minnesota children living in poverty increases, By Renee Richardson, February 23, 2012, Brainerd Dispatch: “Three area counties rank among the highest in the state for numbers of children in poverty, according to Kids Count - a report by a charitable foundation using the latest Census data. Aitkin, Wadena and Cass counties were among eight counties with the highest percentage of children in poverty ranging from 21.1 percent to 35 percent. The Kids Count Data Snapshot, using 2010 Census data, was recently released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The number of Minnesota children living in high-poverty neighborhoods almost doubled in the last decade from 35,000 to 68,000, rising from 3 percent to 5 percent - a 94 percent increase, the foundation reported…”

More than 1.4 million families live on $2 a day per person, By Marisol Bello, February 23, 2012, USA Today: “The number of families living on $2 or less per person per day for at least a month in the USA has more than doubled in 15 years to 1.46 million. That’s up from 636,000 households in 1996, says a new study released by researchers at the University of Michigan and Harvard University. Government benefits blunt the impact of such extreme poverty, but not completely, says one of the researchers, Luke Shaefer, a professor of social work at Michigan…”

Grading system likely to hurt high-poverty schools most, By Scott Elliott, February 24, 2012, Indianapolis Star: “Indianapolis Public School 46 is a success story, a lauded example of how a school whose students come from poverty can excel with help from a community partner. Just last week, Kroger announced that the grocery chain would again commit $100,000 in cash and volunteers this year to the school it adopted 27 years ago. John Elliott, public affairs manager in Indianapolis for Kroger, was more than proud to tout the school’s achievements. School 46 has earned an ‘A’ grade for its academic performance from the Indiana Department of Education the past four years. But after the event, Elliott was stunned to learn the school’s grade might soon go way down — to a C. School 46 is a likely casualty of the state’s new grading system, passed earlier this month by the State Board of Education. And when it comes to high-poverty schools, it’s far from the only one…”

• More U.S. kids living in high-poverty areas: study, By Susan Heavey, February 22, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Years of economic setbacks have taken their toll on the nation’s youngest residents, with another 1.6 million children living in high-poverty neighborhoods, according to one study that shows nearly 8 million children residing in poor areas in 2010. In 2000, 6.3 million children lived in high poverty in the United States, a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found. The growth - a 25 percent increase - reverses the trend just a decade ago that saw fewer children living in communities with high poverty rates, according to the nonprofit group. And three-quarters of those children live in such areas despite having at least one parent working, the study showed…”
• Colorado’s percentage of kids living in severe poverty soars, By Karen Augé, February 23, 2012, Denver Post: “Over the past decade, the number of Colorado children living in communities of concentrated, severe poverty grew at one of the fastest rates in the nation, a new study has found. The number of children living in areas of poverty here - 92,000, or 8 percent - is still relatively low compared with many states, according to the Kids Count Data Snapshot on High-Poverty Communities, compiled by the nonprofit Annie E. Casey Foundation. In 2000, the report found 20,000 Colorado kids living in high-poverty areas…”
• Muskegon County ranks ninth-worst for percentage of children living in high-poverty areas, By Megan Hart, February 23, 2012, Muskegon Chronicle: “Muskegon County is ninth-worst in the state when it comes to the percentage of children living in areas of high poverty. About 19.1 percent of Muskegon County children lived in areas of high poverty, defined as an area where 30 percent or more of the population falls below the federal poverty guidelines. That’s $17,000 for a family of three or $22,000 for a family of four. Of Michigan’s 83 counties, 33 had children living in high-poverty communities, according to a report the Annie E. Casey Foundation released Thursday. The report used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey from 2006 through 2010. The Casey Foundation advocates for policies to help families living in poverty…”
• Report: 67% of Detroit kids live in high-poverty areas, By Karen Bouffard, February 23, 2012, Detroit News: “More children live in high-poverty neighborhoods in Detroit than in any of the nation’s 50 largest cities, according to a new report. Roughly 67 percent of Detroit children live in a neighborhood with concentrated poverty, according to the ‘Data Snapshot on High-Poverty Communities’ from Kids Count. That’s 10 percentage points more than the next worst city, Cleveland, where 57 percent of children live in high-poverty areas. Michigan ranked 44th among the states for the number of children living in neighborhoods where 30 percent or more of the population is in poverty, defined as about $22,000 per year or less for a family of four…”

Stimulus bolsters public assistance, By Russ Zimmer, February 18, 2012, Fremont News-Messenger: “Most stimulus spending in Ohio last year went to supplementing public assistance programs for the poor, according to a CentralOhio.com analysis of data gathered by investigative news nonprofit ProPublica. The $840 billion American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 turned 3 years old Friday and is, by all accounts, winding down. The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board has paid out all but $100 billion, a board spokeswoman said. About $16.8 billion has been injected into Ohio since the bill’s passage on Feb. 17, 2009, ProPublica reports. More than a quarter of it — $4.5 billion — has been directed toward helping the state cover its share of Medicaid bills and meeting the greater demand on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Last year, state government received at least $2.1 billion from stimulus-funded sources, according to Ohio Office of Budget and Management spokesman Dave Pagnard…”

• 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…”

Illinois Medicaid cuts will hit a system already in crisis, By Kristen McQueary, February 17, 2012, New York Times: “When Gov. Pat Quinn announces Medicaid cuts from a Springfield podium next week, Dr. Jason Grinter will be in the operating room of a Chicago hospital, treating Medicaid patients. Dr. Grinter is a dentist whose appointment book includes hundreds of Medicaid clients, many of whom have no other access to dental care. He treats children, the elderly and the disabled - often in school gymnasiums or nursing home cafeterias as part of a mobile dentistry outreach. Dental services are among the benefits lawmakers are considering cutting as they look for ways to reduce the cost of the state’s health care system for the poor. Dr. Grinter says that is short-sighted. ‘When you go without dental care, you get infections,’ he said. ‘You go to the emergency room - that’s big bucks. The state will be spending twice as much if it gets rid of the dental program.’ From the enrollment of patients through treatment and payment, the Medicaid program in Illinois has been plagued by fraud, inefficiency, unsustainable costs and a paralyzing political climate with often-competing doctor, hospital and health care lobbies, according to lawmakers and health-care organizations who work within the system…”

Risk of poverty greater in Portugal, February 18, 2012, The Portugal News: “The risk of poverty is greater in Portugal compared to the rest of Europe, with one in four Portuguese living with the threat of poverty and social exclusion in 2010, according to statistics published by Eurostat this month in Brussels. Despite the risk of poverty having increased in Europe between 2009 and 2010, the average in the EU’s 27 countries is 23.4 percent risk of poverty, while in Portugal it is over 25 percent. According to the European statistics agency, 25.3 percent of Portuguese were at risk of poverty in 2010, 0.4 percent more than during the previous year. In total, throughout Europe, 115 million people lived at risk of poverty in 2010…”

Cash payments help cut HIV infection rate in young women, study finds, By Sarah Boseley, February 14, 2012, The Guardian: “Regular small cash payments to girls and young women can enable them to resist the attentions of older men and avoid HIV infection, according to a new study. Girls and young women are at the greatest risk of HIV infection in endemic countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, between a quarter and a third have the virus by the time they reach their early 20s. But educating girls about risks and promoting condom use has had little impact in countries where they are struggling with poor education, low status and poverty, and where older men with money offer one of the few ways out of financial difficulties. A team of researchers from the World Bank, University of California at San Diego and George Washington University in the US carried out a randomised controlled trial in Malawi to find out whether monthly payments to schoolgirls and their families would help change the girls’ behaviour and safeguard their health…”

The nutrition puzzle, February 18, 2012, The Economist: “In Eldorado, one of São Paulo’s poorest and most misleadingly named favelas, some eight-year-old boys are playing football on a patch of ground once better known for drug gangs and hunger. Although they look the picture of health, they are not. After the match they gather around a sack of bananas beside the pitch. ‘At school, the kids get a full meal every day,’ explains Jonathan Hannay, the secretary-general of Children at Risk Foundation, a local charity. ‘But in the holidays they come to us without breakfast or lunch so we give them bananas. They are filling, cheap, and they stimulate the brain.’ Malnutrition used to be pervasive and invisible in Eldorado. Now there is less of it and, equally important, it is no longer hidden. ‘It has become more visible-so people are doing something about it…’”

As seniors climb from poverty, young fall in, By Marisol Bello, February 16, 2012, USA Today: “Living in rural North Carolina, Linda Sue Jones doesn’t see her teenage son as the archetype of a national trend. But 15-year-old Josh, as a boy who lives in the South in a household headed by a single woman, is characteristic of the exploding numbers of children in the USA living in poverty - numbers exacerbated by the recession that has pushed many families into poverty for the first time. Twenty miles away, Kenneth Moody, 70, and his wife, Margie, 65, say they, too, are struggling, especially because of high out-of-pocket medical bills. They stay off the poverty rolls because of the $2,000 they receive from Social Security every month. They pay more than $300 a month for prescription drugs but say their medical costs would be even higher if they didn’t have Medicare. ‘It’s life,’ says Margie Moody. ‘That pays our bills, buys our food, pays for the doctor.’ The two families highlight a national trend over the past three decades as child poverty steadily rises and poverty among seniors, aided by social programs, steadily drops…”

• Arizona Supreme Court allows cuts to AHCCCS to stand, By Mary K. Reinhart, February 15, 2012, Arizona Republic: “The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to review an appeal challenging cuts to the state’s Medicaid program, letting stand an enrollment freeze that has locked thousands of poor residents out of government-paid health insurance. An estimated 100,000 childless adults will lose Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System coverage this fiscal year. The state has turned away an untold number since a lower-court judge allowed the cap to take effect in July. The high court’s decision effectively ends the case, which centers on a 2000 voter- approved measure that expanded the AHCCCS population. However, it lets stand an Appeals Court ruling that effectively said the budget cuts violated the measure, Proposition 204, but the court couldn’t force the Legislature to obey the law. The court decisions raise questions about how much room legislators have to interpret ballot measures…”
• Feds look into Minnesota’s premium rates for poor, By Jackie Crosby, February 14, 2012, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “The federal government has launched an investigation into whether Minnesota has set premium rates too high on health insurance coverage for low-income people, officials said Tuesday. The probe came to light at a state House committee hearing, at which one critic of the state’s nonprofit plans said they earn more on the state plans for Medical Assistance than they have on commercial plans, even as doctors and hospitals collect less reimbursement. But even as lawmakers pushed for answers during a sweeping four-hour session, few details were forthcoming…”

Poverty, homelessness rising sharply among Florida students, By Mc Nelly Torres, February 11, 2012, Miami Herald: “Since the economy collapsed in 2008, Florida’s student population has become poorer each year - with almost all school districts in the state experiencing spikes in the number of kids who qualify for subsidized meals. Children have become homeless at alarming numbers as well. Homelessness among school-age children has soared from 30,878 in the 2006-07 school year to 56,680 in 2010-11. Homelessness for children of all ages, including those too young for public school, was 83,957 in 2010-11, up from 49,886 in 2006-07. The adverse effects of the economic downturn are having a significant impact on Florida’s public school system, in which over 56 percent of students enrolled in the 2010-2011 school year qualified for subsidized meals. The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed data relating to poverty rates, homeless students and subsidized meals for all school districts before the financial crisis began up to and through the 2010-11 school year. The widespread increase in these three poverty indicators paints a picture of a state that has become much poorer after the Great Recession…”

Nigerians living in poverty rise to nearly 61%, February 13, 2012, BBC News: “Poverty has risen in Nigeria, with almost 100 million people living on less than a $1 (£0.63) a day, despite economic growth, statistics have shown. The National Bureau of Statistics said 60.9% of Nigerians in 2010 were living in ‘absolute poverty’ - this figure had risen from 54.7% in 2004. The bureau predicted this rising trend was likely to continue. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer but the sector has been tainted by accusations of corruption. According to the report, absolute poverty is measured by the number of people who can afford only the bare essentials of shelter, food and clothing…”

Fighting poverty remains tall task, By Erin Rhoda, February 12, 2012, Kennebec Journal: “Scott Labbe, 63, is a retired, former business owner who has lived in Madison for 40 years. When he first moved to town, there were four appliance stores, three stores selling televisions and four furniture stores, he said. One of those stores, Scott’s Appliance, was his. People in Somerset County were not wealthy — he recalled once trading a washer for half a slaughtered cow — but they made a living. Now, he questions how people in Madison and Somerset County make ends meet, considering the shortage of good jobs in comparison to housing payments, food costs, fuel for the car and the expenses that come with raising children. Labbe is on the mark — a recent report says nearly one in five people in Somerset live in poverty. Of the county’s 52,200 residents, 9,700 people, or 18.6 percent, live below the poverty line…”

• Medicaid overhaul leaves questions, By Benjamin Yelle, February 13, 2012, Keene Sentinel: “A plan to change the way Medicaid services are delivered in New Hampshire has service providers and family members searching for answers - and time is running out. Gov. John H. Lynch and the N.H. Executive Council are scheduled to act in March on contracts for so-called ‘managed care’ of Medicaid clients. Medicaid is a federal program that provides medical and social services to low-income Americans. It has two components: acute care, which is similar to health insurance, and covers things like doctor’s visits, and long-term or chronic care, which covers permanent developmental disabilities, acquired brain injuries and other serious or recurring ailments. In the Monadnock Region about 1,000 people receive such services. The state Legislature voted in 2011 to send Medicaid services out to bid to private, for-profit companies to take over administration from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services…”
• Feds deny part of Fla. Medicaid proposal, By Kelli Kennedy (AP), February 11, 2012, Miami Herald: “Republican lawmakers’ quest to expand a Medicaid privatization program statewide was dealt a blow this week after federal health officials said the state could not impose $10 monthly premiums on Medicaid beneficiaries. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also denied the state’s proposal to charge $100 co-pays for any non-emergency ER visits, according to a letter sent Thursday. Federal health officials said the fees violated several statutes designed to protect nearly 3 million of state’s most vulnerable…”
• Medicaid managed care companies defend their efforts in Kentucky, By John Cheves, February 13, 2012, Lexington Herald-Leader: “Three companies hired last year to manage most of the state’s Medicaid program on Monday defended their efforts thus far and said they’re working to resolve problems. Lawmakers on the Program Review and Investigations Committee quizzed executives with Coventry Cares, Kentucky Spirit and WellCare of Kentucky, which manage Medicaid outside of the Louisville area under a cost-cutting plan implemented in November by Gov. Steve Beshear…”

• How are our kids doing? Study says one in five live in poverty, By Jennifer A. Bowen, February 10, 2012, Belleville News-Democrat: “One in five children in Illinois live in poverty, according to Illinois Kids Count 2012 data released Thursday by the organization Voices for Illinois Children. The organization released its 2012 data Thursday morning at various locations throughout the state, including East St. Louis, and the report shows an economy that is still struggling with poverty and a high joblessness rate. One in five children in Illinois live in poverty, and the racial-ethnic disparities in family income have widened. African-American and Latino families have the highest child poverty rates, according to the Illinois Kids Count 2012 report. The report is researched and prepared by Voices for Illinois Children and Kids Count…”
• Bad economy hurts kids, too, charity says, By Deidre Cox Baker, February 10, 2012, Quad-City Times: “State and federal budget cuts that cause a harsh impact on children threaten the future for everyone, several advocates agreed at Thursday’s release of the 2012 Illinois Kids Count findings. ’Being born poor was not a barrier for success in the past, but that’s not true in today’s economy,’ said Sue Swisher, the executive director of the Child Abuse Council in the Quad-Cities. She spoke at a news conference called to announce the annual report tallied by Voices for Illinois Children, the Illinois Kids Count organization…”
• Report: Illinois children are caught in ‘budget crossfire’ as recession undermines gains, By Karen Hawkins (AP), February 9, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Illinois children are caught in a ‘budget crossfire,’ hit hard by state budget cuts and a recession that left one in five of them living in poverty and 33,000 students homeless in 2010, a children’s advocacy organization said in a report released Thursday. The Illinois Kids Count 2012 report says the state’s budget crisis is undermining gains made for young people, with cuts to investments in early childhood education and after-school programs…”
• High poverty rates, child care issues persist in Tri-County, By Pam Adams, February 9, 2012, Peoria Journal Star: “Orders of protection issued in the Tri-County Area are at record levels and, in most cases, the victims of domestic violence are pregnant or have young children, according to Martha Herm, director of the Center for Prevention of Abuse. The Children’s Home is seeing ‘astronomical increases’ in the number of Tri-County Area children on Medicaid hospitalized for psychiatric problems, according to the agency’s president and CEO, Clete Winkelman. And a small day care on Peoria’s south side that doesn’t accept government funding is, nevertheless, feeling the crunch of state government cutbacks…”

• N.J. to disperse $40M in federal Medicaid funding to hospitals, clinics investing in electronic records, By Susan K. Livio, February 9, 2012, Star-Ledger: “The state this week is distributing $40 million in federal Medicaid funds to reward 30 hospitals and 40 physician practices that have been enterprising enough to invest in an electronic medical record system designed to improve care and catch mistakes, state health and human services officials announced today…”
• Health care providers say Medicaid managed care riddled with problems, By Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt Spears, February 9, 2012, Lexington Herald-Leader: “The baby was coming, no matter what a managed care company had to say. But when a woman in labor went to one of Appalachian Regional Healthcare’s eight Kentucky hospitals before Christmas, the hospital was told by one of three managed care companies that now run Medicaid in much of Kentucky that it must get preauthorization to deliver the baby in order to get paid. Fourteen days after the woman and baby went home, the hospital still was waiting for approval to deliver the baby, said Joe Grossman, vice president and chief financial officer of Appalachian Regional Healthcare. Grossman was one of several people to testify Wednesday before a Senate panel about problems with private companies that are now managing Medicaid care in Kentucky…”
• Quinn to Obama: Illinois pressing ahead on Medicaid reforms, By Ray Long and Alissa Groeninger, February 10, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “As President Barack Obama presses forward with his signature health care law, his fellow Illinois Democrats running state government have waited more than a year to win federal approval for a new plan to fight fraud in the health program for 2.7 million of the state’s poorest residents. Facing increasing Republican pressure to put reforms in place, Quinn’s team told the Obama administration this week that Illinois will wait no longer. Later this month, the state’s Healthcare and Family Services Department will start matching addresses of people enrolled in Medicaid against Illinois secretary of state driving records to ensure that care for the poor is going to people who actually live in Illinois. The Quinn administration also is putting together a plan to check income eligibility and plans to roll it out soon, officials said…”

• State Medicaid to quit paying for ER visits deemed unnecessary, By Carol M. Ostrom, February 7, 2012, Seattle Times: “Intent on cutting state budget health-care costs, Medicaid officials say the program will no longer pay for any medically unnecessary emergency-room visits, even when patients or parents have reason to believe they’re having an emergency. The rules - arguably more drastic than an earlier proposal to limit Medicaid patients to three visits per year for nonemergency conditions - would block payment for ER visits for about 500 different conditions. They would apply to all adults and children on Medicaid, with no exceptions, such as someone being brought in by ambulance or from a nursing home, or when patients have neurological symptoms or unstable vital signs. The new rules are to begin April 1, but a statewide group of emergency doctors, backed by the Washington State Medical Association and the Washington State Hospital Association, are pressing lawmakers to stop the plan, arguing it would shift costs to hospitals and ER doctors and deny care to people with real emergencies…”
• Medicaid may stop covering visits to ER later deemed ‘unnecessary’, By Jordan Schrader, February 8, 2012, Tacoma News Tribune: “Medicaid soon might stop covering emergency-room treatment that state officials decide afterward was ‘not medically necessary.’ A state Health Care Authority rule putting a three-visit limit on unnecessary ER use by poor patients was blocked in court on procedural grounds. The agency has replaced it with a new policy planned to take effect April 1 that would reduce the number of conditions deemed non-emergencies but would forbid even a single unnecessary visit. The doctors and hospitals who sued over the old rule blasted the new plan Tuesday, saying it would leave it up to a ‘faceless bureaucrat’ to decide what’s an emergency. They weren’t ready to say they’ll go to court again over it…”

• Maine Governor LePage backs nation’s toughest Medicaid cuts, By Christine Vestal, February 6, 2012, Stateline.org: “Medicaid spending is a matter of urgency almost everywhere in the country right now, but in few places is the urgency as palpable as it is here, where the governor refers to the federal-state health insurance program for the poor as ‘welfare,’ says it’s necessary to eliminate coverage for 65,000 adults, and wants to stop paying room and board for some 2,000 elders who live in group homes. All these ideas are part of Republican Governor Paul LePage’s plan to close a $220 million hole in the state’s biennial Medicaid budget. ‘If we are to bring our welfare system to a manageable level that Maine can afford,’ LePage insists, ‘we must make the necessary structural changes … The state can no longer use gimmicks to fill the hole.’ The size of Maine’s Medicaid shortfall is substantial, but it pales in comparison to gaps in many other states. In fact, health experts in Maine say the program has survived far bigger shortfalls in recent years without cutting the rolls. Still, LePage argues that the program can no longer provide a ‘free lunch’ to poor 19- and 20-year olds, or to healthy adults responsible for the care of others…”
• Obama administration rejects Medi-Cal copayments, By Judy Lin (AP), San Francisco Chronicle: “Federal health officials on Monday said California cannot force Medi-Cal recipients to make a co-pay for doctor visits and prescription drugs, a decision that brings relief to low-income patients but complicates the state’s effort to close a $9.2 billion budget deficit. A letter from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said agency officials were ‘unable to identify the legal and policy support’ for the state’s request. The decision is the latest in a string of legal and regulatory challenges that have made it difficult for the state to reduce spending and balance its budget. Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers were planning to save $511 million a year in the health insurance program by requiring low-income patients to pay a share of their medical costs…”

• Engineering a Healthy Tomorrow for the Poorest Billion, By Muhammad H Zaman, February 1, 2012, Huffington Post: “It is not everyday that you hear the words big Pharma, billionaires, philanthropists and eradication of diseases in the same sentence. Well, Monday, January 30th was one such spectacular day. Bill Gates, WHO Director General, leaders of major Pharmaceutical companies and senior government officials from around the globe unveiled in London, a joint declaration and a strategy to rid the world of ten neglected diseases that afflict the poorest of the poor in the world within a decade. The vision, goal and mission is bold, tremendously exciting, timely and hopefully a catalyst for a healthier world for all…”
• Joint Effort Announced Against Tropical Diseases, By Donald G McNeil Jr., January 30, 2012, New York Times: “Thirteen drug companies, the governments of the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lions Club and other smaller charitable organizations on Monday announced a joint effort to tackle 10 neglected tropical diseases in a coordinated fashion.The diseases, with multisyllabic names like lymphatic filariasis, visceral leishmaniasis and dracunculiasis, are almost never found in rich countries. Most are usually not fatal - but they still ruin the lives of subsistence farmers and rural craftsmen by causing blindness, grotesque swelling, chronic anemia, excruciating pain or other symptoms…”

Revealed: Infant death rate five times worse in Scotland’s poorest areas, By John Ferguson, February 1, 2012, Daily Record: “Babies from Scotland’s poorest neighbourhoods are almost five times more likely than those from the richest to die before they are one. The shocking statistic was revealed yesterday in an NHS report that analysed the postcodes of newborns for the first time. Of 59,082 births in Scotland in 2010, 15,361 mums lived in the most deprived fifth of postcode areas, while 9453 were from the most affluent. In the poorest areas, 85 children died before reaching one. In the best areas there were 11 deaths…”

U.S. recession hikes rate of rural poverty, By Bill Bishop, January 31, 2012, Daily Yonder: “The percentage of people living in poverty was higher in rural America than in either exurban or urban counties in 2010, according to the U.S. Census. And these rates have increased since the recession began in 2007. In 2007, before the recession began, 15.8 percent of those living in rural counties fell under the poverty line. Three years later, that rate in rural counties had increased to 17.8 percent…”

• State Medicaid programs face $141 million shortfall, report says, By Jason Stein, January 31, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Wisconsin’s health programs for the poor have a $141 million shortfall in state money over the next year and a half, new estimates show. So far, GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has saving plans that would more that cover that potential deficit in the state’s Medicaid health programs. But a new report by the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office questions whether all of the saving will materialize. With costs in the program still substantial and the saving uncertain, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau found in its new report that the finances of the health programs will need careful monitoring. The report comes ahead of new estimates expected next week that should shed more light on the overall condition of the state’s strained budget…”
• Medicaid rolls rose even as Pa. disqualified many, new calculation shows, By Don Sapatkin, January 26, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare’s stepped-up efforts over the summer to target waste, fraud, and abuse quickly bore fruit in the fall. Adult Medicaid enrollment alone was down 109,000 through November. Cause and effect seemed clear. Advocates for the poor and disabled were outraged. Now, DPW has suddenly changed its reporting method. Revised calculations show a decline of just 6,000 participants for the same period. And when December is added in, enrollment is up by 23,000 since August - a time when officials agree that tens of thousands of people lost benefits after overdue reviews found they were ineligible. DPW says the new reporting method is just as accurate as the old one, merely different. But it will not disclose its new method or recalculate the latest Medicaid data using the old formula…”
• Medicaid copays could increase in South Dakota, By Megan Luther, January 31, 2012, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “Medicaid recipients in South Dakota will face larger copays for their medication if the federal government signs off on a state plan designed to drive down costs in the program that provides health care to poor people. Requiring the larger copays is one of 11 recommendations put forth by the Medicaid Solutions Work Group, an assembly of health care providers, lawmakers and state employees assigned with finding savings the the program. The group began work last year at the request of Gov. Dennis Daugaard…”
• Medicaid change to cut pharmacy payments in Texas, By Jim Fuquay, January 28, 2012, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “When Marwan Hattab opened Wedgwood Pharmacy just over a year ago, he knew from his previous years in the business how much it costs to fill a prescription. And he knows it’s quite a bit more than he’ll be paid under a new reimbursement system for Texas’ Medicaid program. The state’s move to managed care for Medicaid prescriptions goes into effect March 1, and Hattab and other independent pharmacists say they stand to lose money on every prescription they write for the federal/state healthcare program for the poor. A coalition of Texas pharmacies said last week that the dispensing fee that pharmacists receive for filing a Texas Medicaid prescription will plunge from about $6.50 to as little as $1.35. The change is part of legislation passed last year that aims to save the state an estimated $100 million over the next two years…”

Without dental coverage, patients seek pain relief in ER, By Alison Bath, January 28, 2012, Shreveport Times: “Louisiana spent $1.7 million on Medicaid patients who visited statewide emergency rooms seeking pain relief from toothaches during fiscal year 2010-11. The year before, the state paid $1.66 million for the same reason, according to Department of Health and Hospitals data. Those hospital visits didn’t solve the problem. Unlike dentists and oral surgeons, ER doctors and other physicians can’t pull a tooth. So, the thousands of Medicaid and other government health program recipients who visit an ER each year in Louisiana seeking help for toothaches, tooth abscesses and other dental emergencies receive only palliative care and a referral to an oral surgeon…”

Medicaid dispute pits ’shared responsibility,’ care of poor, By Michael Booth, January 29, 2012, Denver Post: “Colorado policymakers are wrestling to bring the burgeoning Medicaid budget under control, as critics fear health insurance for the poor will consume the state budget. But even the smallest cuts or cost-shares raise protests from patient advocates and objections that such measures will prove more expensive in the long run. ‘Sharing responsibility’ by raising co-pays and enrollment fees for public health care actually discourages patients from seeking care until they require budget-busting emergency or specialty help, researchers say. ‘There is indisputable evidence that when you ask poor people to pay more for medical care, some of them cannot afford it, so they avoid seeking the doctor or cannot afford their medications,’ said Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University. Some of those patients, Ku said, will eventually require ‘the most expensive forms of care at emergency rooms or in hospitals.’ The constraints inherent in Medicaid - a tangled web of mandates, entitlements and patients’ behavior - frustrate critics, who see the program growing even more onerous. Federal health reform and expansions from a state hospital fee will add hundreds of thousands of people to public insurance rolls who are unlikely to ever leave…”

• Welfare drug testing bill whips up debate in state legislature, By Mike Sluss, January 25, 2012, Roanoke Times: “A House of Delegates committee has advanced legislation that would require drug testing of Virginia welfare recipients, despite objections from Democrats who argued that the proposal amounts to a targeted attack on poor people. The legislation - House Bill 73 - would require local social services agencies to screen recipients in the state welfare program to determine whether they use illegal drugs. Those who refuse to comply or fail a drug test would lose Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits for one year unless they enter a drug treatment program. A recipient would have one opportunity to be reinstated to the program by complying with screening, assessment and treatment requirements…”
• Welfare drug-testing bill passes on to vote from full House, By Maureen Hayden, January 25, 2012, News and Tribune: “Indiana lawmakers are pushing forward on legislation that would cut off cash assistance to welfare recipients who fail drug tests. In a 15-5 vote that crossed party lines, the House Committee on Ways and Means approved a bill that would require the state’s Family and Social Services Agency to test out a drug-screening program on a small scale before it was launched statewide. It now goes to the full House for a vote. The focus is narrow: The FSSA would implement the drug-screening program in three test counties for a two-year period, then report back to the legislature. The drug-screening would only apply to adults who are receiving cash payments through a program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF…”

Welfare issue makes political comeback, By Dawn Turner Trice, January 22, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently offered to attend an NAACP convention to explain why African-Americans ’should demand paychecks instead of food stamps.’ And he has described President Barack Obama as ‘the most successful food stamp president in American history.’ While the Republican presidential race has brought the welfare issue to the forefront, critics say it has also resurrected stereotypical images of the black ‘welfare mother’ having out-of-wedlock babies so she can stay home and live large off the taxpayers. When it comes to welfare, perceptions have often trumped reality…”

• Kids Count 2011 report shows children on Medicaid, food assistance doubled in past decade in Southwest Michigan, By Fritz Krug, January 24, 2012, Kalamazoo Gazette: “More children are living in poverty in Southwest Michigan than a decade ago, and the number receiving Medicaid and the Food Assistance Program (food stamps) has nearly doubled over the last 10 years in four counties in the region. The findings are part of the annual Kids Count in Michigan Data Book, released today by the Michigan League for Human Services…”
• Many Michigan kids living in poverty, report finds, By Robin Erb, January 24, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “Fewer Michigan teens are having babies or dropping out of school, and educational benchmarks for some of the state’s youngest students have improved, according to the new Kids Count report. Still, more of Michigan’s families continue to slip into poverty, threatening the health and future of the state’s youngest residents, according to the annual measure of the well-being of the state’s children. More than 1 in 10 children live in extreme poverty — twice as many as a decade ago, according to the report, which draws from several sources, according to the Kids Count in Michigan project at the Michigan League for Human Services, an advocacy group for poor people in Michigan…”
• Kids Count: Nearly half of Michigan students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, By Dave Murray, January 24, 2012, Grand Rapids Press: “Nearly half of Michigan’s students now qualify for free or reduced-priced school lunches, a sign that any economic recovery has not filtered down to the state’s youngest residents, according to a report from two children’s advocacy organizations. The Kids Count in Michigan report also finds that the number of children living in poverty has jumped from 14 percent to 23 percent between 2000 and 2009, and that the number of children in extreme poverty has more than doubled, reaching 11 percent at the end of the decade. But advocates said there is good amid the economic statistics. Teen pregnancies are declining, as are the number of students dropping out of school. Death rates also are slowing, though children are experience more chronic illnesses…”
• Recession affecting Michigan, Great Lakes Bay Region children, Kids Count data shows, By Kathryn Lynch-Morin, January 24, 2012, Saginaw News: “Today’s release of Kids Count in Michigan data paints a bleak picture of kids’ well-being in the Great Lakes Bay Region. More children are living in poverty in Saginaw and Bay counties than were in 2005, and rates of abuse and neglect have increased in both counties over the course of the decade, the report shows…”

• Food stamp recipients to critics: Walk in our shoes, By Jesse Washington (AP), January 20, 2012, Charlotte Observer: “Some have advanced degrees and remember middle-class lives. Some work selling lingerie or building websites. They are white, black and Hispanic; young and old; homeowners and homeless. What they have in common: They’re all on food stamps. As the food stamp program has become an issue in the Republican presidential primary, with candidates seeking to tie President Barack Obama to the program’s record numbers, The Associated Press interviewed recipients across the country and found many who wished critics would spend some time in their shoes. Most said they never expected to need food stamps, but the Great Recession, which wiped out millions of jobs, left them no choice. Some struggled with the idea of taking a handout; others saw it as their due, earned through years of working steady jobs. They yearn to get back to receiving a paycheck that will make food stamps unnecessary…”
• The Americans no one wants to talk about, By Michael Gerson, January 19, 2012, Washington Post: “It is an achievement of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements to have raised large issues of economic freedom and economic inequality. It is a paradox that their arguments have generally been vague, ideological and unhelpful. Elements on the right reject the whole ideal of distributive justice - opposing most taxation as theft and embracing a utopian project involving the abolition of the modern state. Elements on the left seek a substitute for capitalism - a utopian project that has been tried and found frightening. The political debates on free markets or the privileges of the 1 percent seldom touch on the actual struggles of citizens - say, living in the shadow of foreclosure, or attending a failing school, or surviving in a gang-occupied neighborhood. Ideology is abstract. Hardship is lived concretely. I like a good political philosophic debate as much as the next columnist. Give me a soy latte and a libertarian, and I’m set for the night. Ideas do have consequences. But many Americans are being overlooked in this bipartisan conspiracy of economic abstraction. A significant and growing portion of the population lives in poverty…”
• GOP presidential candidates wade into politically tricky territory of food stamp spending, By Associated Press, January 9, 2012, Washington Post: “Politicians normally shy away from saying they want to cut food stamps, but this year’s Republican presidential candidates are using domestic food aid as an example of a welfare state gone awry. Supporters of the program say it is one of the most reliable safety nets for families who suddenly find themselves unable to pay for food, and politically the program has proved almost untouchable over many decades. More than 45 million people received the benefit last year at a $75 billion cost to the government, a record number as the economy has flailed. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and fellow contender Rick Santorum, both heavily involved in congressional welfare reform efforts in the mid-1990s, say the government should stop promoting a welfare-like state and convert food stamp spending to block grants to states, a move that could freeze spending and cut the benefit to many who now receive it. A spokesperson for Republican Mitt Romney says the former Massachusetts governor also supports turning the nation’s food stamp program into state block grants, though he rarely mentions it…”

Recession’s toll touches children, By Michael Martinez, January 14, 2012, Reno Gazette-Journal: “Heidi Lanini and her four kids live an austere life — by necessity. Lanini, 37, has lived in her southeast Reno apartment for eight years but hasn’t worked in six for a variety of reasons. These include health issues, the inability to find a new job as the economy soured and a lack of training in the technological skills required for her work. And then there are her kids, who require resources she has struggled to provide, leaving the children living on the edge, struggling with everyday life, school work and uncertainty about their futures. She and her family have survived on subsidized housing, food stamps, welfare and Medicare. Lanini’s family could be a portrait of a growing national trend described in a report on how the recession has affected families — particularly children. The report released by Washington, D.C.-based First Focus shows that Nevada children fared worse than American children overall on several key economic indicators of child well-being…”

Poverty level of children in Bristol, Va., among worst in the state, By David McGee, January 17, 2012, Bristol Herald Courier: “One out of every three city children lives below the poverty level - a figure that ranks among the worst in Virginia, a new report shows. Nearly 34 percent of children in Bristol, Va., live in a household where the median income is below $22,000, according to a report released Monday by Voices for Virginia’s Children. The city is tied with Roanoke for having the seventh highest rate statewide. The problem is acute across Southwest Virginia, where the number of children living in poverty is double the state average and significantly higher than the national figure. Released Monday, the report uses information from the 2010 census, which is the most recent data available…”

• Report: Even before birth, low-income children lag behind, By Erin Andersen, January 12, 2012, Lincoln Journal Star: “Before they are even born, children of low-income families lag behind their more economically stable peers in every way.  They hear fewer words. Have fewer developmentally stimulating experiences. Poorer nutrition, child care and health care.  They start kindergarten less ready than their wealthier counterparts, and they fall further behind as the years roll by. They are less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to attend college and less likely to land financially stable jobs. They are more likely to be arrested and jailed, to have babies as teenagers and to perpetuate the cycle of poverty from which they came, according to national and state data compiled in the 2011 Kids Count in Nebraska Report…”
• Report shows more kids in poverty, By Paul Goodsell, January 12, 2012, Omaha World-Herald: “A growing share of Nebraska’s children lives in poverty - a trend that has major implications for the state’s schools, workforce and future vitality, according to the latest Kids Count in Nebraska report. ‘Poverty really underscores so many different aspects of a child’s life,’ said Melissa Breazile, who wrote the report for Voices for Children in Nebraska, a statewide research and policy group. ‘It influences outcomes in all kinds of different indicator areas.’ As it has for the past 19 years, the group’s report provides a report card on how children fare in Nebraska. It includes statistics on subjects such as test scores, infant mortality and juvenile crime.  This year’s report outlines numerous challenges and urges Nebraska to invest in its future through programs that help children, especially in their early years…”

Middle class dropouts, By Tami Luhby, January 11, 2012, CNNMoney.com: “Nearly one third of Americans who were raised in the middle class dropped down the economic ladder as adults — and that’s before the Great Recession hit. ‘Being raised in the middle class is not a guarantee that you’ll have that same status as an adult,’ said Erin Currier, project manager at Pew’s Economic Mobility Project. ‘With all the economic turmoil in the past four years, there’s good reason to think that downward mobility is more severe.’ Pew looked at children born in the early- to mid-1960s and assessed their economic status roughly 40 years later. Being middle class in the parents’ generation meant a household income of roughly $33,000 to $64,000 in 1979. But their children had to earn between $54,000 and $111,000 to maintain their relative standing in society in the mid-2000s…”

• Cuts to MaineCare, welfare approved in spring 2011 taking effect, By Kathryn Skelton, January 5, 2012, Lewiston Sun Journal: “Changes in the state budget approved last spring and now in effect include cutting MaineCare coverage for hundreds, stopping food stamps for some and, in two weeks, telling 2,500 people receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: Your time’s up. Also coming soon: new rules that end TANF benefits for some immigrants and a measure to drug-screen TANF recipients with drug-related felonies dating back to 1996. With three of the five changes affecting legal noncitizens who have been in the U.S. fewer than five years, one advocate said Portland and Lewiston will be hardest hit…”
• New study disputes LePage administration on MaineCare’s childless adults, By Jackie Farwell, January 9, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “The childless adults Gov. Paul LePage has proposed dropping from MaineCare are far from young and healthy, despite rhetoric to the contrary, according to a report released Monday by an advocacy group for the poor. More than 40 percent of childless adults covered through MaineCare are older than 45 and many have serious medical conditions, states the report prepared by Maine Equal Justice Partners. Known as ‘noncategoricals’ because they don’t fall under categories of mandatory coverage, the childless adult group consists of beneficiaries ages 21-64 with no dependents in the home who don’t qualify as disabled under federal guidelines…”

Harder for Americans to rise from lower rungs, By Jason DeParle, January 4, 2012, New York Times: “Benjamin Franklin did it. Henry Ford did it. And American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. ‘Movin’ on up,’ George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion. But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage…”

Medicaid rolls in Colorado at “all-time historical high” in November, By Tim Hoover and Kristen Leigh Painter, January 5, 2012, Denver Post: “Nearly 615,000 Coloradans were on Medicaid in November, by far a record high, officials said Wednesday, attributing the vast bulk of the growth to economic hard times rather than recent eligibility expansions. ‘We’ve had a mushrooming of clients,’ Sue Birch, director of the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, told members of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee. Birch said the 614,146 Coloradans enrolled in Medicaid in November represented a 57.7 percent increase over January 2007. ‘This is an all-time historical high,’ she said. Added to the 71,988 children and pregnant women covered under the state’s CHP+ program - a 42 percent increase over January 2007 - it means roughly 13 percent of all Coloradans are covered by state health-insurance programs. The spike hasn’t gone unnoticed in the benefits line…”

Judge allows thousands to join child support lawsuit, By Bill Rankin, January 3, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Thousands of parents facing possible jail time for failing to pay child support can join a lawsuit that says lawyers should be appointed to represent them if unable to afford counsel, a judge has ruled. In a Dec. 30 order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter granted class-action status to a suit filed last year against the state by five parents who had been jailed for child-support debt. Georgia is one of the few states nationwide that does not provide lawyers for indigent parents facing civil contempt in child-support proceedings. The state already struggles, because of budget shortfalls, to provide lawyers to indigent people charged with criminal offenses. The lawsuit contends Georgia is creating modern-day debtor’s prisons for those jailed when they have no ability to pay because they have lost jobs or are disabled and unable to find work…”

• State scales back Medicaid shortfall by $300 million, By Jason Stein, January 3, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In a bit of good news for the state’s strained budget, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration is scaling back by more than $300 million the two-year shortfall projected for state health programs for the poor. But a state health department spokeswoman said that to ensure the state health programs remain affordable, the Walker administration will still seek to proceed with a half-billion dollars in proposed cuts affecting tens of thousands of recipients. In a letter to lawmakers Tuesday, the head of the Department of Health Services said that the shortfall through June 2013 is now expected to be $232 million in state and federal money, down from the $554 million that was projected in September. The change in the projections amounts to about 2% of the funding in the program, Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith wrote in a letter to members of the Joint Finance Committee…”
• Medicaid payment backlog cripples supportive living centers, By Dean Olsen, January 3, 2012, State Journal-Register: “Medicaid payment delays of up to six months are causing fits for supportive living centers throughout Illinois, and some owners are worried they may have to close if the situation doesn’t improve soon. ‘It’s a crisis for us because reserves and lines of credit are being exhausted,’ Wayne Smallwood, executive director of the Springfield-based Affordable Assisted Living Coalition, said last week. ‘This is the worst we’ve seen, and there’s no relief in sight.’ Illinois’ festering budget problems, the sagging economy and the end of the federal economic stimulus program in June have contributed to growing payment delays that also hamstring nursing homes, hospitals, doctors and other medical providers…”
• Nowhere to go, patients linger in hospitals, at a high cost, By Sam Roberts, January 2, 2012, New York Times: “Hundreds of patients have been languishing for months or even years in New York City hospitals, despite being well enough to be sent home or to nursing centers for less-expensive care, because they are illegal immigrants or lack sufficient insurance or appropriate housing. As a result, hospitals are absorbing the bill for millions of dollars in unreimbursed expenses annually while the patients, trapped in bureaucratic limbo, are sometimes deprived of services that could be provided elsewhere at a small fraction of the cost…”

State cuts to Medicaid reduce care for patients, force doctors to reconsider participation, By Shannon McCaffrey (AP), December 27, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “Just as Medicaid prepares for a vast expansion under the federal health care overhaul, the 47-year-old entitlement program for the poor is under increasing pressure as deficit-burdened states chip away at benefits and cut payments to doctors. Nearly every state has proposed or implemented a plan in its current budget to rein in costs, and many are considering additional cuts in the year ahead. For the tens of millions of poor and disabled who rely on the program - approaching nearly one in five Americans - the cuts translate into longer waits for doctors, restrictions on prescription drugs, a halt to vision and dental care, staff cuts at nursing homes and dwindling access to home health care…”

Grass-roots efforts aim to pull people out of poverty, By Dave Aeikens, December 21, 2011, USA Today: “In one of this city’s poorest neighborhoods, Jerry Sparby is among those trying to help people pull themselves out of poverty and help their children do better in school. Sparby and a group of volunteers have launched a local version of Promise Neighborhood, a growing national program aimed at connecting struggling families with the services they need, from job training to car repairs. If people start to understand the importance of relationships, I honestly think we can turn this community around,’ says Sparby, a professor at St. Cloud State University and retired school administrator in nearby Cold Spring, Minn. Promise Neighborhood programs are popping up across the country in mostly urban areas that have high poverty and low student success…”

Recession takes toll on Kansas kids, By Ann Marie Bush, December 15, 2011, Topeka Capital-Journal: “Data shows Kansas children are feeling the full impact of the recession, said Shannon Cotsoradis, president and chief executive officer of Kansas Action for Children. The Kansas Kids Count report, which is being released Thursday, measures county by county how children are doing across 25 health indicators of health, education and economic success, a news release from Kansas Action for Children states. Nearly one in five Kansas children is living in poverty, and more than 47 percent of public school children are participating in the free or reduced-priced school lunch program…”

Census Bureau clarifies poverty numbers, By Sharon Bernstein, December 16, 2011, MSNBC.com: “Officials at the U.S. Census Bureau moved Friday to clarify widely reported figures meant to estimate the number of Americans living in poverty.  Dueling Census reports - one based on official poverty estimates that was released just last week and another based on an experimental calculus used in November - differed from one another by 20 percentage points regarding the number of people viewed as living in poverty. The widely reported figure showed that one out of two Americans are in poverty or are low-income. Other Census figures put the figure closer to one out of three Americans. That’s because the experimental measure, a supplement to the official poverty figures meant to take into account such factors as whether a family is receiving food stamps and how much people pay in taxes, uses a poverty level of $24,343 for a family of four instead of the $21,113 used by the official measure…”