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…”

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…”

State efforts put more children on health insurance rolls, despite economic downturn, By N.C. Aizenman, December 27, 2011, Washington Post: “Publicly funded programs have enabled 1.2 million more children to gain health insurance since 2008 - at least in part due to extra work by many states to ensure that more of the children who are eligible for the programs are actually signed up, Obama administration officials plan to announce Wednesday. Twenty-three states are to be awarded federal performance bonuses totaling nearly $300 million for these efforts. Maryland and Virginia have qualified for the two largest amounts - $28.3 million and $26.7 million, respectively - under an incentive plan aimed at improving child enrollment rates in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP…”

• Short-staffed and budget-bare, overwhelmed state agencies are unable to keep up, By Melissa Maynard, December 13, 2011, Stateline.org: “On the face of it, the backlog the Hawaii Public Housing Authority is experiencing seems a simple matter of supply and demand. Some 11,000 families are on the authority’s waiting list, hoping against the odds that they can get one of only 6,295 public housing units. In a state where housing is notoriously expensive, the only people with a real shot at getting a unit are the homeless and survivors of domestic abuse. Even for them, the waiting can take years. ‘The waitlist is so extensive and the homeless problem is so great that a lot of people are getting preference over working families,’ explains Nicholas Birck, chief planner for the Hawaii Public Housing Authority. ‘They never make it to the top.’ But there’s another, hidden problem at play in Hawaii’s housing backlog. Lately, the authority hasn’t had enough employees to manage turnover in vacant units. As a result, 310 homes have been sitting empty, even with all the people languishing in waitlist limbo. For many of the vacant units, all it would take is a few simple repairs and a little bit of administrative work to give a family a home - and get the authority’s backlog shrinking rather than growing…”
• Anatomy of a backlog: How Vermont fell behind on adult protective services, By Melissa Maynard, December 14, 2011, Stateline.org: “Cerebral palsy does not thwart Chris Osborne’s passion for chess and all kinds of music, from hard rock to opera. But Chris, who is 25 and lives near Burlington, does depend on others to dress, feed and bathe him, as well as to clean and change his feeding tube. He can communicate only through a digital device or an eye-gaze board, which allows him to spell words by looking at the letters. Last year, Chris’ mother, Nancy Osborne, and her fiancé, Art Demarais, began to suspect that the professional caretaker living with Chris in his apartment had stopped doing key parts of his job. Sometimes, when Chris came home to visit, Nancy noticed that her son was caked in dirt and covered with rashes. Chris had made multiple trips to the emergency room to treat infections related to improper cleaning of his feeding tube. And he often complained of being hungry: Thin to begin with, Chris lost 23 pounds in six months…”
• Overcoming a backlog: How Texas conquered a mountain of food stamps applications, By Melissa Maynard, December 15, 2011, Stateline.org: “Two years ago, the 316 offices in Texas where people go to sign up for food stamps were the very image of a government backlog. Long lines of frustrated people, many of them hungry, snaked through dingy spaces designed to handle much smaller crowds. The back offices weren’t much better. Desks of state employees were littered with piles of applications - in boxes under workers’ desks and stacked on top of them - that hadn’t yet been entered into the state’s computer systems. Texas was the worst state in the country at performing a straightforward task: giving food stamp applicants a yes or no within 30 days in normal cases and 7 days for emergency cases. That’s the standard set by the federal government, which oversees the state-run program. According to state data, at the height of the backlog in November 2009, Texas processed only 57.5 percent of new applications on time. In reality, the problem was much worse because stacks of pending applications weren’t properly being counted as part of the problem…”

• How some states rein in charter school abuses, By Kathleen McGrory and Scott Hiaasen, December 10, 2011, Miami Herald: “Florida’s charter school law, which makes it easy to open charter schools and difficult to monitor them, has spurred a multimillion dollar industry and a school boom - all while leading to chronic governance problems and a higher-than-average rate of school failure. Nationally, about 12 percent of all charter schools that have opened in the past two decades have shut down, according to the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance & Governance. In Florida, the failure rate is double, state records show…”
• Florida charter schools: big money, little oversight, By Scott Hiaasen and Kathleen McGrory, December 10, 2011, Miami Herald: “Preparing for her daughter’s graduation in the spring, Tuli Chediak received a blunt message from her daughter’s charter high school: Pay us $600 or your daughter won’t graduate. She also received a harsh lesson about charter schools: Sometimes they play by their own rules. During the past 15 years, Florida has embarked on a dramatic shift in public education, steering billions in taxpayer dollars from traditional school districts to independently run charter schools. What started as an educational movement has turned into one of the region’s fastest-growing industries, backed by real-estate developers and promoted by politicians. But while charter schools have grown into a $400-million-a-year business in South Florida, receiving about $6,000 in taxpayer dollars for every student enrolled, they continue to operate with little public oversight. Even when charter schools have been caught violating state laws, school districts have few tools to demand compliance…”
• Profits and questions at online charter schools, By Stephanie Saul, December 12, 2011, New York Times: “By almost every educational measure, the Agora Cyber Charter School is failing. Nearly 60 percent of its students are behind grade level in math. Nearly 50 percent trail in reading. A third do not graduate on time. And hundreds of children, from kindergartners to seniors, withdraw within months after they enroll. By Wall Street standards, though, Agora is a remarkable success that has helped enrich K12 Inc., the publicly traded company that manages the school. And the entire enterprise is paid for by taxpayers. Agora is one of the largest in a portfolio of similar public schools across the country run by K12. Eight other for-profit companies also run online public elementary and high schools, enrolling a large chunk of the more than 200,000 full-time cyberpupils in the United States…”
• New Mexico legislators look to curb charter school costs, By Ben Wieder, December 12, 2011, Stateline.org: “One of Albuquerque’s charter schools, Academia de Lengua Y Cultura, offers a dual-language middle-school curriculum, with teachers in some classes giving lessons in English and Spanish on alternating days. Across town, the Cottonwood Classical Preparatory School, which takes students from sixth grade through high school, emphasizes seminar discussions and offers advanced international diplomas. The Southwest Secondary Learning Center, meanwhile, reinforces math, science and engineering lessons by allowing students to maintain and fly real airplanes. They represent three of New Mexico’s more than 80 charter schools. While some of those schools look and act like private institutions - their leaders have freedom to run them as they see fit as long as students meet state standards - they are part of the public school system, charge no tuition and receive nearly all of their funding from state monies. But unlike other states, where average per-student funding for charters is typically lower than it is for other public schools, a legislative report released last month found that charters in New Mexico receive an average of 26 percent more funding per student than traditional public schools. The report suggested that lawmakers change how schools are funded to address that…”
• Number of charter school students soars to 2 million as states pass laws encouraging expansion, Associated Press, December 7, 2011, Washington Post: “The number of students attending charter schools has soared to more than 2 million as states pass laws lifting caps and encouraging their expansion, according to figures released Wednesday. The growth represents the largest increase in enrollment over a single year since charter schools were founded nearly two decades ago. In all, more than 500 new charter schools were opened in the 2011-12 school year. And about 200,000 more students are enrolled now than a year before, an increase of 13 percent nationwide…”
• More whites drawn to charter schools, By Jennifer Smith Richards, December 12, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Charter schools statewide and in Franklin County have become much more racially diverse over the past decade, state enrollment data show. In the 2000-01 school year, when charters still were new in Ohio, 87 percent of the 748 Franklin County charter students were members of minorities. In the 2010-11 school year, roughly 33,000 students attended local charters, and 63 percent were nonwhite. The local shift mirrors one statewide, where the total percentage of black, Latino, Asian, American Indian and multiracial students has dropped from 86 percent to about 60 percent in the past 10 years. The reason for the shift, experts say, is twofold: Parents now have more charter schools from which to choose, which makes the option attractive to a wider range of parents. And many schools now are marketing to suburban families instead of focusing on students from urban districts such as Columbus…”

• Feds crack down on FoodShare fraud on social media websites, By Jason Stein, December 6, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Federal officials unveiled new rules Tuesday to crack down on fraud in public food benefits, including targeting illegal sales on social media sites and investigating recipients who report their cards lost repeatedly. The Journal Sentinel reported in June that area residents had offered to buy and sell benefits on sites such as Facebook. A state official also said Tuesday that one Wisconsin resident has already been disqualified from the state’s food assistance program for using social media to sell benefits. A U.S. Department of Agriculture official said Tuesday that his agency was taking action after Internet trafficking of food assistance benefits had been highlighted by both the media and state officials around the country…”
• Food stamp use on the rise, By Phil Izzo, December 6, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “Food-stamp use jumped in the U.S. in September as 11 states tapped into the program for disaster assistance. Food stamp rolls have risen 7.8% in the past year, the Department of Agriculture reported, though the pace of growth has slowed from the depths of the recession…”

• Number of N.J. residents receiving food stamps doubled in last four years, By Eric Sagara and Stephen Stirling, November 27, 2011, Star-Ledger: “The number of New Jersey residents receiving food stamps has doubled in the past four years and is at its highest level in more than a decade as the nation’s still sputtering economy continues to take its toll on the poorest residents of the Garden State, state and federal data show. As of September, the most recent data released by the state Department of Human Services, more than 400,000 households and nearly 822,000 people were enrolled in the food stamp program, meaning nearly one out of every 10 residents in New Jersey receives assistance.As of September, the most recent data released by the state Department of Human Services, more than 400,000 households and nearly 822,000 people were enrolled in the food stamp program, meaning nearly one out of every 10 residents in New Jersey receives assistance…”
• Michigan ranks third in use of food stamps, By Maureen Groppe, November 21, 2011, Lansing State Journal: “Michigan households relied on food stamps last year more than all but two other states, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And the 16.9 percent of Michigan households that received food stamps in 2010 was up from the 14.5 percent that did in 2009. The figures released last week come from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. Participants were asked whether anyone in the household received food stamps in the last 12 months…”
• Food stamp divide grows, By Bob Smietana, November 23, 2011, The Tennessean: “David Shelley of Nashville used to work two jobs to feed his wife and two children, but it still wasn’t enough. So, for a few months, they used food stamps to make ends meet. Two decades later, he’s a Baptist pastor and small businessman, and he’s joining a growing number of people critical of the food stamp program at the same time participation is at a record high. He fears it’s becoming an entitlement program people don’t try to leave. ‘If you are working and you are doing your best and you need food stamps, then God bless you,’ he said. Otherwise, he believes the Bible message is clear: If you don’t work, you don’t eat. Nearly 46 million Americans participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. That’s up from 17 million in 2002 and includes 15 percent of households in Tennessee, according to the Census Bureau. The price of the program - about $68 billion annually - and the nation’s budget crisis have opened it to scrutiny and revealed deep divides in American culture…”
• Food stamp usage sticking, By Joan Garrett, November 25, 2011, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “As Tennessee families paused to give thanks around the dinner table Thursday, one of every six households was getting help from Uncle Sam. A new study found that Tennessee ranked second behind only Oregon in the share of households receiving food stamps, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Payments (SNAP), during 2010. The U.S. Bureau of Census reports that 45 states provided more federal help with groceries last year, swelling the number of U.S. households getting food stamps to 13.6 million…”

Ineligible Medicaid recipients cost Va. millions, By Jim Nolan, October 13, 2011, Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Errors by local Department of Social Services caseworkers in enrolling ineligible Medicaid recipients are responsible for the greatest number of improper payments in Virginia’s share of the program, according to an extensive review by the legislature’s watchdog agency. It found that the state’s administration of the Medicaid program is overly complex and not automated. It also needs investments in technology and greater oversight to guarantee it is not overpaying managed-care organizations for services. Errors in enrolling ineligible recipients could have cost the state somewhere between $18 million and $263 million in fiscal 2009, according to the report - requested by lawmakers in 2010 and presented Tuesday to lawmakers by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission…”

Oregon’s hunger assistance program receives two awards, By Saerom Yoo, September 29, 2011, Statesman Journal: “There’s a silver lining in Oregon’s record hunger problem - $5 million worth, in fact. The state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp program, has received two awards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its successful performance. For the fifth consecutive year, SNAP was recognized for its high participation rate with a $2.6 million award. Almost 92 percent of Oregonians eligible for food stamps are enrolled. It was also awarded $2.4 million for timely processing of applications…”

Community colleges taking hits in Michigan, By David Jesse, September 30, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Fewer students are enrolling and others are taking lighter class loads at Michigan’s community colleges, the result of federal worker retraining money drying up and health care reform that expanded a student exception to insurance rules. Federal health care law now allows part-time students to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies, which could account for a decline in credit hours as students look to save money by paring class loads. Enrollment at Michigan’s 28 community colleges is down 4% compared to last fall, and the number of credit hours taken is down 6%. Falling credit hours is a bigger deal to school officials than enrollment, because tuition revenue is based on classes taken and not enrollment…”

• Most food stamp recipients have no earned income, By Sara Murray, September 26, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “Some 70% of households that relied on food stamps last year had no earned income, a new report shows. More than 40 million individuals and nearly 19 million households tapped the food stamp program in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While the recession technically ended in 2009, a sluggish economic recovery left millions out of work or underemployed and leaning on the government for assistance last year…”
• $7M plan may save the state $130M, By Catherine Candisky, September 29, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The state hopes to avoid $130 million in federal penalties by giving working-poor families $10 a month in food stamps. Federal regulators recently levied nearly $33 million in fines against Ohio for having too few welfare recipients working or training for a job. Desperate to avoid that fine and another $100 million in pending fines, state officials announced their plan for boosting the so-called work-participation rate - padding the rolls. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says that among its initiatives is temporarily adding more poor families - with jobs - to public-assistance rolls so they can be counted in the state’s work-participation rate…”

• USDA: Increased food aid kept hunger rate steady, By Pam Fessler, September 7, 2011, National Public Radio: “Despite the bad economy, the number of Americans who struggled to get enough to eat did not grow last year, and in some cases declined, according to new government data. Still, a near-record number - almost 49 million people - were affected. Federal officials say an increase in government food aid kept the numbers from going even higher. According to the new data from the Department of Agriculture, about 17.2 million households last year had trouble putting food on the table - what it calls ‘food insecure.’ And more than a third of those households had members who went hungry at some point during the year because they couldn’t afford enough to eat…”
• 1 in 10 Minnesota households struggles with hunger, USDA report says, By Julie Siple, September 7, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “A new report released Wednesday by the United States Department of Agriculture shows one in ten Minnesotan households doesn’t always have access to enough food for a healthy lifestyle. The numbers are part of an annual survey conducted for the United States Department of Agriculture. Every December, U.S. Census workers ask people all over the country a series of questions about food. They’re counting how many people lack consistent access to enough food. It’s the closest thing to an official hunger count. The report says 14.5 percent of American households are food insecure - close to 49 million people. But in a conference call this morning, USDA Undersecretary Kevin Concannon pointed out the good news…”
• In Texas, 18 percent are facing hunger, By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje, September 8, 2011, San Antonio Express-News: “According to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Texas ranks second in the nation in the percentage of people struggling with ‘food insecurity,’ a term that refers to households where members have difficulty meeting their food needs. In 2010, more than 4 million Texans - 18 percent - either experienced hunger outright or altered their eating patterns to avoid hunger, such as buying less healthy but more filling food. Only Mississippi had a worse rating. On the heels of the national report, a Texas group released a study that reveals the level of food insecurity among Texas’ 254 counties, using the newest data…”

Number of AZ children enrolled in KidsCare drops, By Max Levy, August 31, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “The number of children enrolled in a state-federal health insurance program for youth on the brink of poverty has plummeted from a peak of 66,317 in May 2008 to 16,662 this month, the lowest level since 1999. The drop comes as demand for the program is going strong: In July, more than 100,000 children were on the waiting list for KidsCare, the state’s version of the federally sponsored Children’s Health Insurance Program. More than half of the decline has come since Jan. 1, 2010, when the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System froze enrollment in KidsCare in response to a lack of funding, according to its website…”

• TennCare could take big hit, By Chas Sisk, August 31, 2011, The Tennessean: “Health care, children’s services and unemployment offices could bear the brunt of expected cuts in federal spending in Tennessee, according to planning documents released Tuesday. Spending on TennCare could be reduced by as much as 25 percent, and local health departments could lose as many as 278 jobs across Tennessee under a worst-case scenario prepared for state finance officials. Tennessee also may have to close as many 36 career centers, and reduce staffing for child welfare by nearly 700 people, if the federal government presses ahead with deep cuts to Tennessee. The planning documents give some insight into how sharp reductions in federal spending might affect Tennessee. About 40 percent of the state’s $30 billion budget comes from the federal government, which intends to reduce its spending by at least $1.2 trillion in a bid to reduce the national debt…”
• Colorado scaling back Medicaid after drastically underestimating numbers, cost, By Tim Hoover, August 31, 2011, Denver Post: “Two years after lawmakers expanded Medicaid to cover poor adults without children, the state is vastly scaling back the program because the number of people eligible for coverage is nearly three times as high as first projected and the cost of insuring them is almost nine times original estimates. The new coverage followed the 2009 passage of major health care legislation that allowed the state to impose a fee on hospitals while drawing down matching federal money to expand Medi caid coverage. House Bill 1293 was estimated to generate about $1.2 billion for Medicaid programs when fully phased in, and the measure called for expanding eligibility levels. A new eligibility class was created for adults without dependent children and whose income was up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level, or $10,890 per year for an individual…”

More Americans hungry for food stamps, By Marilyn Geewax, August 28, 2011, National Public Radio: “This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to release its latest update on the food stamp program. It’s an important indicator of the nation’s economic health - and the prognosis is not good. Food stamp use is up 70 percent over the past four years and that trend is expected to continue. The spike began in late-2008 and early-2009 when the worst of the recession was triggering massive layoffs and home foreclosures. Although the economy has been growing since mid-2009, the pace has been too slow to absorb the nearly 14 million people without jobs. Nearly half of those have been out of work more than six months. As a result, the number of people seeking federal help with groceries has been soaring. At this time four years ago, before the recession hit, about 27 million people were using food stamps. Today 46 million get help through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - what most people call food stamps - which is roughly 15 percent of the population…”

Country wrestles with spike in food stamp use, By Kristina Cooke, August 22, 2011, MSNBC.com: “Genna Saucedo supervises cashiers at a Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera, Calif., but her wages aren’t enough to feed herself and her 12-year-old son. Saucedo, who earns $9.70 an hour for about 26 hours a week and lives with her mother, is one of the many Americans who survive because of government handouts in what has rapidly become a food stamp nation. Altogether, there are now almost 46 million people in the United States on food stamps, roughly 15 percent of the population. That’s an increase of 74 percent since 2007, just before the financial crisis and a deep recession led to mass job losses…”

• State will switch to public workers for FoodShare program, By Jason Stein, August 12, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In a deal that preserves millions of dollars in federal aid to Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration will drop hundreds of private contractor employees who work for the state’s food assistance program and hire scores of public workers as replacements. The agreement comes after federal officials had threatened in recent months to withhold some money for the state’s FoodShare program because of what they said were improper privatization efforts that were started by the administration of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and initially intensified by the administration of Walker, a Republican…”
• Local use of food stamps doubles, By Kathleen Foody, August 13, 2011, Wausau Daily Herald: “The number of residents receiving food stamps in Marathon and Lincoln counties nearly doubled during the last four years as the recession forced more people into poverty and stretched family paychecks. In the first six months of 2011, a monthly average of 14,784 Marathon County residents received food stamps, up from 7,936 in 2007. Almost 3,700 Lincoln County residents used the program in the same time frame, up from 1,587 in 2007. Tammy Beranek, a 44-year-old Wausau resident who has used the program for three years, said it allowed her to make ends meet when she was diagnosed with epilepsy and couldn’t continue working as a housekeeper…”

Alabama helps push U.S. program to all-time high, By Lyneka Little, August 4, 2011, ABC News: “Alabama is responsible for much of the 1.1 million increase in food stamp recipients after horrific storms tore through the area and led some residents to seek disaster relief, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Some 45.8 million people collected food stamps in May, up from 44 million in April, according to the USDA. That’s an all-time high, up 12 percent from a year ago and an astonishing 34 percent from two years ago. Comparing May 2010 to May 2011, more than 20 states have seen double-digit percent growth in individuals seeking food assistance benefits…”

Indiana’s bumpy road to privatization, By Matea Gold, Melanie Mason and Tom Hamburger, June 24, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Louise Cohoon was at home when her 80-year-old mother called in a panic from Terre Haute: The $97 monthly Medicaid payment she relied on to supplement her $600-a-month income had been cut without warning by a private company that had taken over the state’s welfare system.  Later, the state explained why: She failed to call into an eligibility hot line on a day in 2008 when she was hospitalized for congestive heart failure. ‘I thought the news was going to kill my mother, she was so upset,’ said Cohoon, 63. Her mother had to get by on support from cash-strapped relatives for months until the state restored her benefits under pressure from Legal Services attorneys. Cohoon’s mother, now suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, was one of thousands of Indiana residents who abruptly and erroneously lost their welfare, Medicaid or food stamp benefits after Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels privatized the state’s public assistance program - the result of an efficiency plan that went awry from the very beginning, the state now admits. Though the $1.37-billion project proved disastrous for many of the state’s poor, elderly and disabled, it was a financial bonanza for a handful of firms with ties to Daniels and his political allies, which landed state contracts worth millions…”

Concern for vast social services database on the city’s neediest, By Anemona Hartocollis, June 16, 2011, New York Times: “New York City has spent the past 18 months developing a database on four million residents, most of them the city’s neediest, which officials say will enhance social services but which advocates for the poor say could put their privacy at risk. Using data-sharing concepts developed by the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies, the database links together vast amounts of information gathered by city agencies that previously maintained their files separately. Now, workers in an array of city departments will have access to information about nearly half of the city’s residents, including welfare and food stamp payments, child care vouchers, and records of Medicaid enrollment and stays in public housing and shelters, among other kinds of social service records…”

• Food stamp use explodes in the suburbs, By Janice Podsada, May 18, 2011, Hartford Courant: “Nhan Do, a supervisor at Five Star Farmers Market in Hartford, says she always schedules extra people to work the first three days of the month. Those are ‘big shopping days’ for people who use food stamps. Despite modest job gains, Do and other area merchants say they haven’t seen a reduction in the number of customers using food stamps. On the contrary, the number of Connecticut people enrolled in the federal food stamp program has been climbing for 28 consecutive months in a steady progression during and after the officially declared national recession…”
• 1 in 6 getting food stamps in Volusia, By Anne Geggis, May 25, 2011, Daytona Beach News-Journal: “More than one of out every six Volusia residents got government help buying food in March, according to statistics released this week that show a dramatic increase in assistance in the past four years. In Flagler County, three of every 20 residents got help. That translates into nearly 100,000 people in the two counties. Comparing data from before the recession began, in March 2007 to March of this year, the latest statistics available, the number of area residents getting food stamps increased by nearly 189 percent…”

• Food stamps equal big money, By Ginnie Graham and Gavin Off, April 24, 2011, Tulsa World: “Retail smokeshops, convenience stores, substance abuse rehabilitation centers and take-and-bake pizza shops across the state received millions in food stamp purchases during a nearly two-year period examined by the Tulsa World. But much of the nearly $1.2 billion in food stamp expenditures went to Walmart stores, which brought in about $506 million between July 2009 and March 2011, according to data supplied by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. And though recipients might live within a mile of a store that accepts food stamps, most recipients travel more than 10 miles for the bulk of the food-stamp spending, according to the World’s analysis…”
• Food stamps a patch, not a panacea, By Ginnie Graham and Gavin Off, April 25, 2011, Tulsa World: “Wilford Case tries to be conservative with his monthly $90 in food stamps. He knows which store knocks down meat prices mid-month, what grocer has longer-lasting produce and once in awhile he’ll find an unexpected sale at a retailer farther from his home. ‘It helps me survive,’ Case said. ‘I don’t need much because it’s just me. I don’t have 19 kids or anything. I have to put a little money in to get dishwashing soap and things like that.’ But bargain shopping is tough because Case does not drive. He is on Social Security disability income because of epileptic seizures and relies on family members, neighbors and friends for rides. He offers money to the driver to help with rising gas prices…”
• Military commissaries see spike in food stamp usage, By Ginnie Graham and Gavin Off, April 24, 2011, Tulsa World: “Oklahoma military base commissaries received nearly $1.8 million in food stamp purchases during a nearly two-year period of state data examined by the Tulsa World. The World examined food stamp data provided by the Department of Human Services covering the period from July 2009 to March 2011. During that time, the average monthly purchases in food stamps, called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, at the base commissaries grew by about 187 percent. Commissaries are available on base to active and retired military personnel and their families and offer grocery items usually lower in cost than at retail stores. The Fort Sill Army base in Lawton posted about $1.1 million in sales using food stamps, followed by about $625,000 at Tinker Air Force base in Midwest City, about $110,000 at Altus Air Force Base and about $5,000 at Vance Air Force Base in Enid. The growth in the monthly averages spent on food stamps has skyrocketed…”

As enrollments soar and state aid vanishes, community colleges reconsider their role, By David Harrison, april 11, 2011, Stateline.org: “Jud Hicks got the email late one evening in January. The following day, it said, the state House of Representatives would release a budget proposal cutting off all state money to four community colleges. One of those was Frank Phillips College, a small school in the Panhandle town of Borger, where Hicks has been the president since early this year. ‘We had no idea,’ he recalls. ‘You had students saying, what do I do? I guess my grades won’t transfer.’ News reports suggested that without state funding, the four community colleges would have no choice but to close. In Borger, a windy plains town of 13,000 people, where oil refineries and chemical plants are the main employers, that would be a devastating outcome. But the impact would be felt well beyond Borger. If Frank Phillips College were to close, the residents of a 9,300 square-mile area - roughly the size of New Hampshire - would be left without a single college or university. That scenario no longer seems likely…”

Medicaid expansion to cost $2.3B, By Catherine Candisky, April 1, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Plans to expand Medicaid under the new federal health-care law will cost Ohio taxpayers $2.3billion from 2014 to 2019, according to new state projections obtained by The Dispatch. An estimated 50 percent spike in enrollment will drive up Medicaid costs around $900 million from earlier forecasts. The state-federal tax-funded program serving nearly 2 million poor and disabled Ohioans is expected to grow by 936,000 in 2014. State officials project that nearly a third of new enrollees are already eligible for Medicaid and expected to sign up after the federal law requiring Americans to have health coverage goes into effect in 2014. Most will qualify for coverage under expanded eligibility guidelines…”

• Arizona asking feds to OK cutting 160K from Medicaid rolls, By Mary K. Reinhart and Ginger Rough, March 31, 2011, Arizona Republic: “Gov. Jan Brewer will formally ask federal health officials today to eliminate more than 160,000 people from the Medicaid rolls under a sweeping plan that would freeze two programs for adults, eliminate coverage for catastrophic care and impose a range of fees and limits on health-care services for Arizona’s indigent. As part of the governor’s Medicaid proposal, the cornerstone of her budget-balancing plan, Brewer also wants lawmakers to restore funding for certain organ transplants, The Republic has learned. Brewer and legislators have come under withering criticism in Arizona and across the country since cutting the life-saving procedures last fall. Brewer’s plan, contained in a 16-page request to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would gradually reduce enrollment in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program, rather than ending coverage abruptly for more than 250,000 people as she originally proposed…”
• AHCCCS recipients await fate of health-care program, By Mary Jo Pitzl, March 31, 2011, Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s health-care program for low-income adults has been on the bubble for months, the subject of intense debate at the state Capitol over how many people to cut from a program that Republicans and Gov. Jan Brewer say is unsustainable. While the debate rages at the Capitol, the 250,000 people who were originally targeted have watched anxiously, wondering how they will get health care if they are dropped from the state’s Medicaid program. ‘What am I going to do, go to the (emergency room) every day?’ asked John Read, a Phoenix resident who relies on the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to cover his medications for diabetes, HIV and high cholesterol. Read, 52, is one of the so-called Prop. 204 population, named after the ballot measure 11 years ago that mandated broader Medicaid coverage in Arizona. The group is wide-ranging, but there are some common traits. They are mostly adults without dependent children, more male than female, who earn less than $10,890 a year, if they have a job. About half are White, according to 2009 statistics; a quarter are Hispanic…”

Isle food stamp use rises, By Alan Yonan Jr., March 28, 2011, Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “The number of Hawaii residents signing up for food stamps increased at a faster pace than the national average last year as state officials expanded eligibility for the program to help people suffering from the economic slowdown. Data released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that 156,355 Hawaii residents were enrolled in the federally funded program in December, up 16.7 percent from the same month a year earlier. The increase was the 13th largest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Nationally, the number of people on food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program rose 13.1 percent to 44 million in December from a year earlier…”

Food stamps surge in West, By Jim Carlton, March 16, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “Before the recession hit, Idaho, Nevada and Utah had some of the lowest rates of food stamp use in the nation. It was a boom time in a region that has always prided itself on self-reliance and a disdain for government handouts. But since the recession began, these three states have the fastest growth rates in the nation of participation in the federal program, recently released figures show. Utah saw a nearly 34% jump in food-stamp participation in December from the same month a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nevada had the second fastest growth rate at 25%, followed by Idaho at 24%. For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, those three states plus Wyoming ranked among the top 10 in food-stamp growth, with Idaho leading with a 42% jump from 2009, according to USDA figures…”

• Feeling budget pinch, states cut insurance, By Kevin Sack, March 1, 2011, New York Times: “Ken Kewley woke up Tuesday without health insurance for the first time in nearly nine years. So did most of the 41,467 other Pennsylvanians who had been covered by adultBasic, a state-subsidized insurance program for the working poor that Gov. Tom Corbett shut down on Monday in one of the largest disenrollments in recent memory. Mr. Corbett, a Republican elected in November, has said the program he inherited is not sustainable with Pennsylvania facing a $4 billion budget shortfall. He blames his predecessor, Edward G. Rendell, a Democrat, for not keeping the plan solvent. His administration notified beneficiaries in late January that their coverage would expire Feb. 28…”
• Medicaid funding busts state budgets, By Tami Luhby, February 28, 2011, CNNMoney.com: “The Obama administration is giving states more flexibility in implementing the health care reform law, but that won’t help governors plug one of their biggest immediate budget problems: Runaway Medicaid costs. Several dozen governors are pleading with the president to let them drop enrollees in their costly Medicaid programs. They say this flexibility is critical in closing an estimated $125 billion budget gap for fiscal 2012, which starts July 1 in most states. Medicaid rolls have ballooned because of the distressed economy. Enrollment has surged to nearly 62 million people, or one in five Americans, according to the government. And it’s projected to expand another 6.1% during the current fiscal year…”
• Republicans shift focus to Medicaid complaints, By N.C. Aizenman, March 1, 2011, Washington Post: “A day after President Obama said he would support amending the health-care law so states can opt out of key provisions sooner, Republicans sought to shift the rhetorical battle back to an issue that would be largely unaffected by the president’s proposal: the impact of the law’s Medicaid requirements on state budgets. Testifying at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday, two Republican governors returned to themes that had dominated the discussion at the National Governors Association’s semiannual meeting over the weekend. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert complained that by prohibiting states from limiting who is eligible for Medicaid, the law has locked them into unsustainable spending at a time of fiscal crisis…”
• Governors seek help on Medicaid costs, By Robert Pear, March 1, 2011, New York Times: “Governors told Congress on Tuesday that President Obama had not gone far enough in proposing to let states opt out of major provisions of the new health care law in 2014, and they said they needed more immediate relief from the growing financial burden of Medicaid. ‘It sounds good, but it provides very, very little actual help,’ Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a Republican, said of Mr. Obama’s proposal. The most important provisions of the federal law, including a big expansion of Medicaid eligibility and a requirement that most Americans carry health insurance, take effect in 2014. The federal government will initially pay the entire cost of coverage for the people who are newly eligible for Medicaid, but after several years, states will be required to pay some of the cost. Gov. Gary R. Herbert of Utah, a Republican, said Medicaid had been a large and growing part of his state’s budget even before the federal law was passed…”

State could face sanctions over severe problem with food stamps, By Arielle Levin Becker, February 24, 2011, The Day: “Connecticut wrongly denies food stamps to eligible residents at a higher rate than any other state. It ranks among the worst in the nation in processing food stamp applications on time and paying out accurate levels of benefits. And federal officials warn that without a ‘tremendous turnaround,’ the state could face significant financial sanctions. ‘We’re really concerned with what’s happening in Connecticut,’ James Arena-DeRosa, northeast regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, told members of the Human Services and Appropriations committees Tuesday. Legislators called the figures he presented shocking. Twenty-six percent of cases in which food stamps were denied or cut off were the result of errors, according to preliminary fiscal-year 2010 figures based on a sample of cases. Fewer than 60 percent of applications were processed in a timely manner, and the rate of inaccurate benefit payments was second-worst in the country…”

School-lunch aid up in Ohio, local suburbs, By Catherine Candisky, February 13, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The federal free and reduced-price lunch program for low-income children now feeds more than four of every 10 Ohio students. New statistics from the Ohio Department of Education show that the proportion of students receiving the tax-funded benefit - regarded as one of the most-reliable indicators of poverty - has increased nearly 50percent in the past five years to a record high. Although the program has long been a staple in urban and rural districts, some of the largest spikes in recent years can be seen in suburban schools surrounding Columbus, not often seen as the front lines of poverty…”

Food stamp rolls reach historic levels, By Pamela M. Prah, February 7, 2011, Stateline.org: “Dorene is a certified teacher in Idaho, but the only job she can find is as a teaching assistant, which pays under $11 an hour. That is considerably less than the $45,000 that the average teacher in Idaho earns annually. She asked that her full name not be used because her family doesn’t know she has been getting food stamp benefits for her two young children and herself for a year. ‘We live paycheck to paycheck,’ she says, even with child support. ‘I never thought I’d be in this situation.’ Nationwide, one in seven Americans currently receives help from the government to put food on the table. All but 14 states saw double-digit spikes in the number of people getting food stamps over the one-year period that ended in November 2010. But Idaho had the largest one-year increase in the country: 28 percent, according to the latest government figures…”

California still second to last in food stamp participation, federal officials report, By Alexandra Zavis, February 2, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Just half the eligible Californians were receiving food stamps in 2008, a slight improvement over previous years but well below the national average of 66%, according to federal estimates released Wednesday. California officials dispute the way the figures are calculated and say they are outdated. “The information is based on 2008 data which is three years old, and it doesn’t reflect the impact of some of the recent program changes that were made to increase the access of needy eligible families and adults,’ said Maricela Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the California Department of Social Services. More than 3.5 million Californians received the nutrition benefit in October, the most recent month for which state figures are available. That is nearly 46% more than in October 2008. But the number of people who qualify for the benefit has also increased and it is unclear whether enrollment has kept pace with that growth…”

• Food-stamp use reaches record level in Oregon, By Michael Rose, January 20, 2011, Statesman Journal: “For 14 months, Oregon’s unemployment rate has hovered between 10.5 percent and 10.7 percent. That’s bad enough, but another sign of economic hardship keeps rising to record levels: food-stamp recipients. People receiving benefits from Oregon’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program increased by 7,467 in December. The total number of Oregonians in the SNAP program - formerly known as food stamps - now stands at 748,886…”
• Food stamps now help 1 in 5 in Jacksonville, By Deirdre Conner, Florida Times-Union: “Food stamp use has more than doubled in Duval County over the past five years. That grim statistic is twice the national average and is the second highest in a study of 22 cities nationwide, according to a report released Monday. The report, issued by the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger advocacy group, showed Jacksonville as second only to Las Vegas in the growth in people who depend on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is commonly called food stamps. It looked at a geographically balanced cross section of urban areas…”

• Arizona lawmakers back governor on Medicaid waiver, By Paul Davenport (AP), January 20, 2011, Washington Post: “The Arizona Legislature on Thursday authorized Republican Gov. Jan Brewer to seek a federal waiver allowing the cash-short state to temporarily remove nearly 300,000 people from its Medicaid rolls in the first such request by a state. The House and Senate approved the authorization requested by Brewer amid questions about whether the waiver request would be approved by President Barack Obama’s administration, and if the legislation would survive an anticipated court challenge. Brewer wants to suspend the eligibility of 280,000 low-income adults, which would scale back the state’s coverage to near that of most other states and save $541.5 million. It’s the single biggest element in Brewer’s plan to eliminate a projected $1.1 billion shortfall in the next state budget…”
• Dayton: Medicaid shift will be soon, By Warren Wolfe, January 20, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Briskly brushing aside the views of his predecessor, Gov. Mark Dayton said Thursday that Minnesota will begin a major expansion of its Medicaid program on March 1, not in October as the Pawlenty administration had projected. His decision to move about 95,000 patients into Medicaid was a ‘no-brainer,’ Dayton said at a news conference. The shift will offer more comprehensive care for most of the affected patients and is expected to bring Minnesota about $1.1 billion in federal funds over the next biennium. There will be no net cost to the state beyond what it would have spent for those patients who are currently on two state health plans, state analysts concluded. While the move was applauded by many health care providers and Dayton’s DFL allies, Republicans said the expansion will be shortsighted…”

More New Mexico families using food assistance, By Sandra Baltazar Martinez, November 2, 2010, The New Mexican: “More New Mexicans have turned to the federal government for food help in the past year, in part because of the weak economy and partly because of a change in eligibility. As of September, 165,000 families had received the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, up from 135,000 in September 2009. The numbers have been rising since 2008, when the economy started to sour, said Betina Gonzales McCracken, public-information officer for New Mexico Human Services Department…”

Recession officially over, use of food stamps stays at record high, By Husna Haq, October 26, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “Before the recession, Mary Ellen Hayden was living an active New York City life. She worked days at a corporate job, nights as a professional singer, taught as a substitute on occasion - and all as she was finishing her certification in secondary English education. Then the recession hit and Ms. Hayden found herself out of a job and living on a shoestring budget in the most expensive city in the US. ‘Things were drying up left and right,’ says Hayden, who had completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at private universities in the Northeast. When a friend told her she could qualify for food stamps, she hesitated, but not for long. ‘I was surprised it existed for me,’ says Hayden, who moved recently to more-affordable Rochester, N.Y. ‘And embarrassed because I’d never done it before. You think, ‘Oh my gosh, I hope no one sees me.’ It’s a humbling experience for someone who’s never been on it before.’ The recession introduced millions of Americans to food stamps - many of them, like Hayden, for the first time. Now, more than a year after the recession is officially said to have ended, more Americans than ever are on food stamps, and the trend is higher still…”

• Unlikely allies in food stamp debate, By Anemona Hartocollis, October 16, 2010, New York Times: “Seventeen years ago, Ann Landers got a letter from “Upset in Texas,’ a checker at a grocery store, complaining about customers on food stamps. One woman bought a ‘fancy birthday cake’ for $17. Another bought a ‘luxury’ bag of shrimp for $32.12, and so forth. ‘Can’t something be done about the freeloaders who are costing us taxpayers millions?’ Upset complained. Ellen Vollinger, legal director for the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center, thought of that letter with a pang a few days ago, when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg asked the federal government for permission to bar New York City’s food stamp users from buying sodas and other sugary drinks with their benefits. Mr. Bloomberg cast his proposal as a kind of social and scientific experiment in fighting the national epidemic of obesity and diabetes. He promised that over the two-year life of the project, New York would collect data on whether food stamp users spent their taxpayer-funded benefits on more healthful choices, like fruits and vegetables. Ms. Vollinger’s group, which is dedicated to fighting hunger, promptly came out against the idea, suggesting that, among other things, it would ‘perpetuate the myth’ encompassed in that letter to Ann Landers, that people who need government assistance make bad choices at the supermarket…”
• Oklahomans receiving food stamps went up in September, marking 30 straight monthly net increases, By Bryan Painter, October 17, 2010, The Oklahoman: “Howard Hendrick, director of the state Department of Human Services, was visiting a DHS office in McAlester and randomly walked into an interview room. Each day, Hendrick reviews the colossal numbers of those in need. That day in southeastern Oklahoma he wanted to hear the story of the young woman in the room seeking assistance. She wakes at 5 each weekday morning, gets her two children ready, takes them to child care by 6:30 a.m. and arrives at work by 7 a.m. where she’s a manager at a developmental disabilities group home. She’s divorced and her ex-husband works in a little country general store. Even though he’s paying child support and she’s working, they still don’t have enough money to take care of their family. ‘She’s driving a Ford Mustang with a couple hundred thousand miles on it,’ Hendrick said. ‘And she’s just living from paycheck to paycheck, trying to make things work. This is the plight of a lot of people today.’ In March 2008, the number of Oklahomans on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, was at 410,440, having dropped 7,184 from the previous month. Unemployment was 3.2 percent and holding steady…”

• Medicaid rolls jumped in 2009, By Kevin Sack, September 30, 2010, New York Times: “Joblessness and the accompanying loss of health benefits drove an additional 3.7 million people into the Medicaid program last year, the largest single-year increase since the early days of the government insurance plan, according to an annual survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Enrollment in the program, which provides comprehensive coverage to the low-income uninsured, grew by 8.2 percent from December 2008 to December 2009, the second-largest rate of increase in the 10 years that Kaiser has conducted the survey. There were 48.5 million people on Medicaid at the end of 2009, or about one of every six Americans. Every state showed enrollment growth, with nine above 15 percent and Nevada and Wisconsin above 20 percent…”
• Medicaid enrollment spikes to 48M in weak economy, By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar (AP), September 30, 2010, Washington Post: “A record number of Americans signed up for Medicaid last year, as the recession wiped out jobs and workplace health coverage. A report released Thursday by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found that enrollment in the safety-net medical insurance program jumped to more than 48 million - a record 15.7 percent share of the U.S. population. With the economy barely improving, states are forecasting a 6 percent increase in the rolls next year, meaning another strain on their cash-depleted budgets. The Medicaid numbers are the latest piece to emerge in a grim statistical picture of the recession’s toll. The ranks of the working-age poor climbed to the highest level since the 1960s last year, according to a recent Census report. Nearly 12 million households received food stamps, a record…”
• States cutting Medicaid benefits as they stagger under economic downturn, By Phil Galewitz, September 30, 2010, Kaiser Health News: “In Arizona, about 640,000 adult Medicaid recipients will lose coverage tomorrow for podiatry care, insulin pumps and most dental services. In Washington, D.C., in November, doctors who treat 250,000 Medicaid patients are scheduled to see their fees cut 20 percent. These are some of the newest cutbacks in Medicaid as states grapple with surging enrollment — and spending — in the government health insurance program for the poor that covers nearly 49 million Americans. Driven by the economic downturn, enrollment in the state-federal program rose by 8.5 percent in fiscal year 2010, which for most states ended in June, according to study released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. State spending on Medicaid jumped an average of 8.8 percent in 2010, the biggest increase in eight years and the second biggest jump in two decades, the study found. The growing costs for Medicaid come as the faltering economy has stripped state tax revenues…”

Food stamp eligibility expands, By Mary Vorsino, September 23, 2010, Honolulu Star Advertiser: “About 22,000 more Hawaii residents will be eligible for food stamps starting next month, when the state changes the income cut off for the benefits to up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level — the maximum allowed for the program. The change will further boost participation in a program that has seen skyrocketing growth in recent years and now serves more than 10 percent of the state’s population. Under the changes, a family of four could earn up to $50,736 a year and still qualify for food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Now, food stamp recipients can earn up to 130 percent of the poverty level (or $32,976 for a family of four)…”

• Paterson’s no. 2 calls for Medicaid overhaul, By Anemona Hartocollis, September 19, 2010, New York Times: “Describing Medicaid as a ‘massive program’ whose growth threatens the state’s finances, Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch is calling for significant changes in New York’s health care benefits for the poor and disabled, lobbing a volatile issue in the midst of the campaign for a new governor. In a report to be released on Monday, Mr. Ravitch says the state should remove control of the rate-setting process for Medicaid, the joint state and federal health insurance program for the poor, from the Legislature to reduce the influence of politics. He also calls for limits on medical malpractice awards and for the re-examination of rules that allow middle-class families to shelter assets so they can qualify for coverage. Although the report does not suggest a cut in benefits, it notes that New York has among the most liberal definitions of eligibility…”
• State’s Medicaid numbers hit record, By Bill Toland, September 21, 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “More than 2.2 million Pennsylvanians are eligible for Medicaid, the federally mandated, state-managed program that provides health care for people and families who can’t afford care otherwise. It is the highest number on record, representing nearly 18 percent of the population — more than one in six Pennsylvanians — and underscoring the worrisome economic climate and continued difficulty many people have finding jobs and employer-provided insurance. But the swelling Medicaid roster is not just a sign of the economic times. It’s also reflective of growing dependence on state-sponsored health care and safety nets, as well as the increasing cost of health care and long-term care — trends showing few signs of immediate abatement. As a result, the state’s Department of Public Welfare budget, and the need to trim it, have been regular sources of political strife for Gov. Ed Rendell and the state Legislature. The same will remain true for future governors and lawmakers…”

Requests for food aid up 50% in past 2 years, By Susan Olp, September 10, 2010, Billings Gazette: “As if additional proof was needed of the sagging economy’s effect, more people than ever are seeking help to supplement their food budget. That’s true for the nation as a whole, as well as in the state and locally. The number of people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — formerly the Food Stamp program — has steadily increased in the past two years. ‘There is more usage of this subsidy program than there has been in history,’ said Linda Snedigar, administrator for the Human and Community Services Division of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. She recently attended a conference titled ‘SNAP Makes History,’ underlining that fact. As unemployment has steadily increased, so has the number of people enrolling in the federally funded SNAP program, Snedigar said. ‘Over the last two years we’ve seen almost a 50 percent increase in the number of people receiving SNAP in Montana,’ she said. That’s about one person for every eight in the state, Snedigar said. In August 2006, the number of recipients in Montana receiving benefits through SNAP totaled 81,717. That number dipped to 81,240 in 2008 and then climbed to 118,958 in 2010…”

Food stamp recipients hit new high: 1 in 5 in Maine, 1 in 10 in New Hampshire, By Jason Claffey, September 5, 2010, Laconia Citizen: “For the first time, the number of Americans on food stamps has exceeded 40 million. The government in August reported 40.8 million people were on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the administrative name for food stamps. The figure increased nearly 20 percent from a year ago. In Maine, nearly one in five people are on food stamps. In New Hampshire, about one in 10 are. Both states experienced double-digit percentage hikes in the number of food stamp recipients in August compared to the same time last year. The record numbers show more people than ever are receiving the help they need, but on the other hand, it shows the effect of a high unemployment rate that has budged little in the wake of the recession…”

• Utah second worst at enrolling kids in Medicaid, CHIP, By Kirsten Stewart, September 4, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah has the country’s second-lowest participation rate in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a persistent problem propelling the state’s uninsured rate, a new report shows. An estimated 7 million children in America were uninsured on any given day in 2008, and nearly 5 million of those were eligible for government-funded, low-income health insurance programs, according to a report by the Urban Institute. Published Friday in the online journal HealthAffairs, the report uses Census data from the 2008 American Community Survey to estimate rates of participation by children in each state, as well as how many children were eligible but not enrolled. The report doesn’t reflect recent efforts to remedy the problem, nor the large increase in enrollment during the economic recession, said Kolbi Young, a spokeswoman at the Utah Department of Health…”
• Push to enroll uninsured kids in health coverage under way in California, By Bobby Caina Calvan, September 5, 2010, Sacramento Bee: “Despite eligibility for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, 700,000 children in California remain uninsured, and a push is under way to get them enrolled in government health insurance programs. Dwindling money for outreach and enrollment-assistance programs, coupled with uncertainty over the future of government health programs, may have sowed confusion among many California families, children’s advocates say…”
• New Jersey’s health insurance programs for poor children still are not reaching all the kids who need it, By Lindy Washburn, September 4, 2010, Herald News: “New Jersey’s health insurance programs for poor children still are not reaching all the kids who ought to benefit, a new analysis shows, and 150,000 children under age 18 in the state remain uninsured. More than two-thirds of the state’s uninsured children have at least one parent who is employed full time. The majority are U.S. citizens whose parents are also U.S. citizens. The largest demographic group is Hispanic (59,000), followed by white (46,000) and African-American (30,000). They are more likely to be boys and over 13 years old…”
• Programs help children get health insurance, By Yvonne Wenger, September 4, 2010, The State: “More than 160,000 children living in South Carolina qualify for government health insurance that is free for their parents, but the kids aren’t signed up for the coverage. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on Friday challenged South Carolina and other states to find and enroll within five years an estimated 5 million children nationwide who are eligible for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, commonly known as CHIP, or Medicaid…”

• Record number in government anti-poverty program, By Richard Wolf, August 30, 2010, USA Today: “Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand. More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a survey of state data by USA TODAY shows. That’s up at least 17% since the recession began in December 2007. ‘Virtually every Medicaid director in the country would say that their current enrollment is the highest on record,’ says Vernon Smith of Health Management Associates, which surveys states for Kaiser Family Foundation. The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about 16 million people, beginning in 2014. That has strained doctors. ‘Private physicians are already indicating that they’re at their limit,’ says Dan Hawkins of the National Association of Community Health Centers. More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn, according to government data through May. The program has grown steadily for three years. Caseloads have risen as more people become eligible. The economic stimulus law signed by President Obama last year also boosted benefits…”
• As unemployed lose benefits, more seek welfare benefits, By James Osborne, August 30, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “One morning in July, Lisa Carstarphen climbed out of her husband’s car and walked into the beige brick building that houses the offices of Camden County’s social services, wondering how at age 46 she ended up there. Two years ago, she was laid off from her $35,000-a-year job at Comcast. Now, with her unemployment benefits exhausted, she was broke. She stepped through the building’s glass doors into a crowded, fluorescent-lit room to wait her turn to sign up for welfare. As a child, she had accompanied her mother to the welfare office and swore she would never end up the same way. But here she was, surrounded by dejected faces, just as in her youth. Memories of nondescript jars of peanut butter and big blocks of government cheese came rushing back, and Carstarphen struggled to keep it together. ‘It was like going back in time. But I had no choice. My refrigerator was bare,’ she said. ‘For someone who has worked their whole life, it’s awful to ask for a handout. When my husband picked me up later, I busted out in tears.’ For the first two years of the recession, welfare caseloads followed the same steady decline of the decade and a half after President Bill Clinton’s transformation of welfare from a social-assistance program into what is essentially a job-training program for low-income families. But over the last six months, caseloads have begun to creep up, the product, experts say, of the continued sluggishness of the job market. Unemployed workers who have run out of unemployment benefits, like Carstarphen, are being pushed into the system…”

FoodShare program expands reach in Brown County, By Malavika Jagannathan, August 27, 2010, Green Bay Press Gazette: “Northeastern Wisconsin residents continue to need and use federal assistance to help buy groceries through the FoodShare Wisconsin program, a trend not likely to change soon as the economy continues to falter. FoodShare Wisconsin supplemented 10,032 households in Brown County last month, according to the most recent data compiled by the state’s Department of Health Services. That’s a 45 percent increase of households using the benefit, formerly known as food stamps, compared with July 2008. The funding disbursed through the program has almost doubled from about $1.4 million in July 2008 to $2.8 million last month, thanks partially to an influx of cash from federal stimulus legislation that took effect last year. The number of participants is increasing, but many more people could be receiving the assistance and are not because they don’t know they are eligible, said Jim Jones, the state’s FoodShare director…”

• The face of the newly poor, By Yvonne Wenger, August 22, 2100, Charleston Post and Courier: “Every day, an average of 112 people — most of them the newly poor — sign up for free government health care in South Carolina. Since the recession officially hit in December 2007, some 3,300 people a month, on average, have signed up for Medicaid in a state that outpaces the nation for poverty, obesity and diseases such as diabetes. Yet, South Carolina’s political leaders have been among the most vocal in the country in opposition of the new health care law. The new law is intended to provide insurance coverage to a portion of the nearly 17 percent of state residents estimated to be without it. But it won’t come cheap: The law will cost the cash-strapped state nearly $1 billion more over the next decade, even after the federal government kicks in its share. Advocates and academics alike say the federal plan is critical for South Carolina’s future prosperity. Healthy workers draw in new businesses, they say, and an educated population starts with children who aren’t sick when they go to school. But many say Medicaid is only part of the answer to South Carolina’s grave health care needs. Others think government-run health care should not be the solution…”
• Signing up for Medicaid more difficult, By Yvonne Wenger, August 24, 2010, Charleston Post and Courier: “Tens of thousands of South Carolinians likely are eligible for government-run health care but aren’t signed up because bureaucratic red tape creates obstacles, advocates said Monday. Sue Berkowitz, director of Appleseed Legal Justice Center, and John Ruoff, program director for South Carolina Fair Share, said Medicaid enrollment isn’t keeping pace with the need, despite the seemingly rapid increase during the state’s deep and prolonged economic downturn. Advocates are working to identify how great the need is, but an exact number isn’t clear. More than 750,000 people are estimated to be without health insurance in the state, although not all of them are eligible for Medicaid. A report Sunday by The Post and Courier revealed that as many as 112 people a day sign up for Medicaid in South Carolina. More than 90,000 have enrolled since the recession officially hit in December 2007…”

Food stamp stampede, By Alana Listoe, August 22, 2010, Helena Independent Record: “Halfway through the month, Scott Crooks had $8.94 left in food stamps, and after a trip to the grocery store on Thursday to buy some ground beef, just $3.33 remained. It wasn’t a difficult decision to buy beef. The 24-year-old AmeriCorps Vista had ingredients at home to make tacos and spaghetti, thus making it possible to split the meat and use it for both meals, stretching his food a few more days. Crooks isn’t alone. More Montana citizens receive federal assistance to pay for their groceries than ever before. Some use the help to feed their children. Many are on a fixed income due to a disability. Others, like Crooks, work but don’t earn enough to buy basic necessities, so they use food stamps to bridge the gap. The number of recipients has climbed steadily every month for the past two years, with 12 percent of the state population receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. That’s about 3 percent higher than it was two years ago at this same time…”

• Bill slashing food stamp funds worries charities, By Renee C. Lee, August 7, 2010, Houston Chronicle: “Local charities already struggling to provide food for needy families worry that a U.S. Senate bill that cuts $14 billion from the national food stamp program will increase demand for assistance in the Houston area and put more strain on nonprofit groups. Harris County stands to lose an estimated $174.3 million in federal aid, leaving thousands of poor and low-income families who depend on the monthly stipend to go hungry, said JC Dwyer, state policy director for the Texas Food Bank Network. ‘We think this is a huge mistake,’ Dwyer said. ‘The food program is the front line of hunger relief in America. With the cut, the pressure falls to charities that are not equipped to handle it.’ The Senate approved a $26 billion financial aid package Thursday to help state and local governments cover Medicaid payments and avoid teacher layoffs. And it’s doing it by siphoning money from the food stamp program…”
• Use of food stamps increases, and more people seek aid from food banks, By Matt Campbell, August 8, 2010, Kansas City Star: “Another month, another record number of Americans on food stamps. More than 40.8 million people, or 13 percent of the country, are now receiving monthly help for basic groceries as the unemployment rate remains stuck at 9.5 percent. Newcomers are joining the food stamp rolls all the time. One of them is LeAnn Ward of Kansas City, who made her first visit to a food pantry Friday while waiting to receive her initial monthly allotment of food stamps for herself and her son…”
• School lunches show poverty bite, By Kelli Gauthier, August 8, 2010, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “In the last five years, Hamilton County managed to woo Volkswagen, help Tennessee snag a $500 million federal grant and invest millions of dollars in at least six brand-new school buildings. The telltale signs of progress and promise of economic prosperity are everywhere. But what often goes unnoticed is that a greater number of families are slipping into poverty. Since 2005, Hamilton County has seen a 20 percent increase in the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches - the measure used by the federal government to determine how much financial assistance a school or school system receives for poor students, according to Tennessee’s education Report Cards…”

Kids’ health care sign-ups move slowly, By Mike Dennison, July 12, 2010, Billings Gazette: “Enrollment for Montana’s expanded children’s health insurance plan continues to inch upward but is still far short of the 30,000 additional kids that supporters hoped for by year’s end, the latest numbers show. Healthy Montana Kids, created by a voter-passed initiative in 2008, has added about 6,600 children to government-funded health insurance plans during the first seven months of its existence. The program offers free health insurance for children in families earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, or $45,800 for a family of three. Anna Whiting Sorrell, the state’s top public health official, said late last week that she thinks the goal of adding 30,000 kids is still reachable and that her agency is mounting ’some major additional outreach’ to sign up more children…”

When it isn’t enough: Idaho leads national increase in food stamp use, By Amy Huddleston, Twin Falls Times-News: “Kelly Malmstrom lost her job as a large-animal veterinarian after suffering a badly broken arm in 2006. Over the last four years she’s undergone more than four surgeries while watching her once-comfortable life spiral into poverty. Emily Flores is a single mother of four children all under the age of 6. She makes $7.50 an hour at her full-time housekeeping job. Dawn Rollins has been sober 14 months after struggling with methamphetamine addiction for 22 years. She said she’s been looking for work everywhere. The faces and stories are different, but the need is the same. Today one in eight Idahoans receives federal assistance to fill the basic need of keeping food on the table. They are next-door neighbors, co-workers, parents gathering their children from day care. And they need help, now more than ever. From March 2009 to March 2010, Idahoans’ participation in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - commonly called the food stamp program - increased by 42.5 percent, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service statistics. That’s more than double the nationwide increase of 21.1 percent during the same span…”