• 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…”

• Early success makes finding uninsured children tougher, By Phil Galewitz, June 16, 2010, USA Today: “For 55-year-old Hilda Johnson, who cares for her two young grandsons, the ‘Walkers/Talkers’ program was a godsend. Johnson, who is disabled, didn’t know how to get insurance coverage for Bryce, 3, and Brian, 4. Then last year, someone from Kingsley House, a non-profit agency that runs Walkers/Talkers, came to her house and helped her enroll the boys in Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor. ‘They were more than helpful in doing all the paperwork,’ she said. ‘Without this, I wouldn’t have known what to do.’ The program, which was started more than a decade ago, is one of the most aggressive efforts in the nation to reach children who are eligible but not enrolled in government health insurance programs - Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Walkers/Talkers program sends workers into the poorest neighborhoods to knock on doors in search of uninsured children and then helps parents sign them up…”
• Young canvassers part of nationwide health care drive, By Phil Galewitz, June 15, 2010, USA Today: “On a cool weekday afternoon, a small group of young adults gathers outside Covenant House, a homeless shelter where some of them live or go to school. Armed with clipboards, they jump into a van and head out to search for their target: uninsured children. For the next three hours, the group of 20-somethings, called ‘door knockers,’ canvass a lower-income neighborhood looking for children who are eligible for two government programs: Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). ‘We’re in the neighborhood to sign up kids for free health care,’ says Maurice Raspberry, 21, who lives at the shelter. Tami Wright, also 21, answers the door at her grandmother’s house. Her children, ages 1 and 3, are uninsured because she didn’t know how to renew their coverage through Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor. ‘I don’t work and I don’t have a car to get to the welfare office,’ says Wright, who is uninsured…”

Millions forced to wait for food stamps benefits, By Michelle Roberts and Justin Juozapavicius (AP), June 9, 2010, Washington Post: “When Amanda Vaca’s husband lost his job, the couple took stock of their finances and drew a startling conclusion: They could not afford to feed their four young children. So Vaca filled out an application for food stamps. Then, the wait began. A month passed, then two. In some weeks, the food simply ran out. ‘There was several occasions where I didn’t have breakfast to cook them or all there was was noodles,’ said Vaca, a customer-service representative in Fort Worth who got laid off shortly after her husband. They waited three months for assistance. The recession has landed millions of hungry families in similar straits, forcing them to endure long waits for help buying basic groceries. A review by The Associated Press found that dozens of food-stamp programs in 39 states left at least a quarter of applicants waiting weeks or months for food aid, some in areas that were not particularly hard hit by the economic downturn…”

More Oregonians than ever are receiving food stamps, By Michelle Cole, May 15, 2010, The Oregonian: “More than 700,000 Oregonians received food stamps last month, which means nearly one in five people in the state are relying on government help to buy their meals. The numbers — the highest in the history of the program — are well above the national average and suggest that families are still struggling financially. Oregon’s high unemployment rate and a push to make the program accessible to all who qualify are driving the record enrollment. Managers at the state Department of Human Services say they do not see any sign of a decrease. Oregon officials first noted the surge in demand for food stamps in 2008, with Bend, Medford and rural counties recording early and substantial increases. More recently, families in the Portland metro area have been seeking help in greater numbers…”

KidsCare enrollment shrinking since signups frozen, By Ginger Rough, May 15, 2010, Arizona Republic: “The number of children participating in Arizona’s health-insurance program for working families has dropped dramatically since the state stopped allowing new enrollments in January, according to newly released figures. From Jan. 1 to May 1, enrollments in the KidsCare program plunged more than 26 percent, from 45,820 to 33,708. Much of the drop is due to normal attrition - from kids who age out of the program at 19 and parents who fail to make enrollment payments, don’t fill out paperwork or lose a job and thus eligibility. But some is because the state froze enrollment at the end of 2009. There are now more than 40,000 applicants on a waiting list for coverage…”

Food bank workers are helping Texas ease its backlog of food stamp applications, By Robert T. Garrett, April 25, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Last year, food banks had to step up to help hundreds of families when the recession and a meltdown of Texas’ food stamp application process caused them to miss out on months’ worth of benefits. Now, food banks and pantries in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio are doing it again as the state works, under federal orders, to reduce backlogs and improve service at the offices where it determines if Texans are eligible for aid. The need is still evident. Hungry, desperate people are flocking daily to Metrocrest Social Services, a food pantry in Carrollton’s central business district…”

• Eligible families in need fall through the cracks, By Mary Spicuzza, April 13, 2010, Wisconsin State Journal: “Just two days before she was due to have a baby, a young mother said she was discouraged from applying for the state’s welfare-to-work program after being told her fiance - who’d struggled to find work - should go out and get a job. Another woman said she’d spent months looking for work but complained of rude job center employees who never mentioned the program, Wisconsin Works (W-2) to her. And a mother who has been living on nothing but food stamps said she dropped out of the W-2 program after less than a year, partly because the schedule for required job training and classes was so demanding. They were among the dozens of people who told the Wisconsin State Journal that despite living in deep poverty - many of them with no income other than food stamps - they still aren’t receiving cash payments or other benefits they could be eligible for under W-2…”
• DFL legislator says welfare policy penalizes women who have a miscarriage, By Madeleine Baran, April 13, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “A key DFL lawmaker has asked the state to change a policy that limits welfare benefits for mothers who suffer a miscarriage. State Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, proposed an amendment on Tuesday that would remove what she calls an unintended and obscure barrier to welfare benefits. Under current law, in many cases welfare officials can deny cash grants for children who are born to a mother who suffered a previous miscarriage while on welfare. ‘It’s pretty rare, but it is sad when it does happen,’ said Jessica Webster, a policy advocate with Legal Aid. The agency has represented clients who have challenged the welfare policy. Webster said that the denials are the result of a complicated and often confusing welfare system…”

• Food stamps: Many Utah seniors shun them - or lack information - and admit hunger, By Julia Lyon, April 11, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: ” Most nights around 5 p.m., Eldon Hendricks walks a few blocks from his Salt Lake City apartment to dine on a burger bargain fit for a retiree’s wallet. At $3.22 for two Arctic Circle burgers, fries and a bottomless drink, the fast food feast is about all his budget allows. This is what it’s like to be old in Utah for thousands of seniors: Eating well is a luxury they can’t afford. Some cross pricey items, such as meat, off the grocery list. Others choose between prescriptions and food, putting their health at risk. But few turn to the federal government’s food stamps program for help while participation in the program by families and middle-aged adults has skyrocketed…”
• Stigma lingers with food assistance program, By Brett Rowland, April 11, 2010, Northwest Herald: “Changes to the federal food assistance program, which is helping more people than ever before, allow some to keep their head up, but the stigma related to using what is commonly known as food stamps lingers. ‘People aren’t so shy anymore,’ said Eric Hendricks, general manager at Wisted’s Super Market in Woodstock. ‘Twenty years ago, they used to come up and whisper that they were using food stamps.’ But things are different now. Congress expanded the program and simplified the rules. ‘More people are accepting because of the economy,’ Hendricks said. ‘A lot more people are out of work and using them.’ In October 2009, 37 million Americans, including 1.5 million Illinois residents, enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a record high for the United States, according to Hunger in America 2010, a study by the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Feeding America…”

Medicaid, food stamp cases exploding, By Craig Schneider, April 8, 2010, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The number of Georgians receiving Medicaid and food stamps has skyrocketed over the past year, stressing a social service system that is facing budget cuts at a time of increasing need. More and more of these new cases involve people and families that haven’t sought public assistance before, say workers who help people apply for these benefits. New applicants include formerly stable working-class families laid low by long-term job loss and home foreclosures…”

• Food stamp frustration is valid, state audit report says, By Corrie MacLaggan, March 30, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Applying for food stamps in Texas can be quite a chore, according to a new state auditor’s report. Need to ask a basic question? Forget the phone. Workers often don’t have time to answer questions by phone and their voice mailboxes tend to be full, the report says. Instead, applicants ‘make unnecessary trips to a local office, in which they sometimes sit for hours just to ask a question or submit a document,’ says the report released Tuesday by State Auditor John Keel. ‘Crowded lobbies, long waits, and delays in eligibility determinations clearly resulted in frustrated clients,’ the report said. The report describes an inefficient system in which 80 percent of cases are kept on paper and a lack of experienced workers is contributing to problems processing applications accurately and within the 30 days required by the federal government. It recommends using technology such as automated kiosks and allowing applicants to check the status of cases online, an option the state now makes available only to certain applicants…”
• State auditor questions social services agency’s no-bid deal with ex-colleague to fix welfare problems, By Robert T. Garrett, March 31, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “State Auditor John Keel has questioned why state social services officials awarded work to a former colleague without seeking other bids, when his offer to curtail processing errors is good for only one-fifth of Texas’ 3.3 million food-stamp recipients. Keel also chided Health and Human Services Commission officials for seeking help last summer from former deputy commissioner Gregg Phillips’ company, though they ignored for nearly two years a similar offer by a Plano firm already on contract. Earlier this month, The Dallas Morning News reported that Phillips, who played a major role in the state’s botched privatization of eligibility screening for assistance programs, is making money trying to help Texas fix the problems that resulted…”
• Human Services to lay off 228 workers, By Mary Vorsino, March 30, 2010, Honolulu Advertiser: “The state Department of Human Services will lay off nearly half of its 517 workers who process applications for government benefits and will shut down 31 eligibility offices statewide under a cost-cutting plan set to go into effect June 30. The plan, which has been strongly opposed by advocates for the poor and several lawmakers, is expected to save about $8 million and DHS officials say it will actually speed up wait times by allowing people to apply on-line and over the phone, congregating workers in two main offices and streamlining workloads. The plan comes at a time when DHS is seeing increases in requests for Medicaid, cash assistance, food stamps and child care subsidies as families struggle to make ends meet. The increase in applications has meant significantly longer backlogs in processing requests for help…”
• Disputed welfare practices don’t hold up in court, By Jon Murray, March 31, 2010, Indianapolis Star: “When Gov. Mitch Daniels pulled the plug in October on a privatization contract that was the cornerstone of an aggressive welfare services modernization plan, he said it simply didn’t work. But the arrangement’s inefficiency, lost paperwork and wrongly denied benefits weren’t the only problems. A judge has ruled that parts of the modernization push also violated the law. Two recent rulings from a Marion County judge and a third from Clay County delivered a new slap to the state’s welfare services agency over several practices, including the handling of denials for some benefits and appeals for others. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration is forging ahead by testing a new ‘hybrid’ plan in some places. In the meantime, dozens of counties still operate with vestiges of the aborted modernization attempt — and with one of the two disputed practices…”

Increased Medicaid usage spikes cost, By Lisa Demer, March 7, 2010, Anchorage Daily News: “The single biggest item in the Alaska state budget is experiencing a costly growth spurt. It’s Medicaid — the state-federal insurance program for poor and low-income people. The cost is sure to top $1.2 billion this budget year and is expected to scale $1.3 billion the next. About 11,000 more children enrolled in the last 18 months. Doctors’ rates went up. And more people eligible for the program began to use it, perhaps out of anxiety over all the talk in Congress about national health care reform. A weakened state economy is at least partly to blame, a legislative consultant told lawmakers recently. The state unemployment rate is rising, and along with it, the numbers of Alaskans turning to food stamps and Medicaid, consultant Janet Clarke, a former top official in the state Department of Health and Social Services, told the House Finance Committee recently…”

• States consider Medicaid cuts as use grows, By Kevin Sack and Robert Pear, February 18, 2010, New York Times: “Facing relentless fiscal pressure and exploding demand for government health care, virtually every state is making or considering substantial cuts in Medicaid, even as Democrats push to add 15 million people to the rolls. Because they are temporarily barred from reducing eligibility, states have been left to cut ‘optional benefits,’ like dental and vision care, and reduce payments to doctors and other health care providers. In some states, governors are trying to avoid the deepest cuts by pushing for increases in tobacco taxes or new levies on hospitals and doctors, but many of those proposals are running into election-year trouble in conservative legislatures…”
• Medicaid enrollment rises nationwide, analysis finds, By Amy Goldstein, February 19, 2010, Washington Post: “The recession has fueled the greatest influx of Americans onto Medicaid since the earliest days of the public insurance program for the poor, according to new findings that show caseloads have surged in every state. More than 3 million people joined Medicaid in the year that ended in June, the data released Thursday show. That pushed enrollment to a record 46.8 million, exacerbating the financial strains on already burdened states and complicating the federal politics of health care. The analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy and research organization, found that in three-fifths of the jurisdictions, including Maryland and the District, people rushed into the safety net for health coverage at more than twice the rate as the year before…”
• Medicaid enrollment climbs, By Richard Wolf, February 18, 2010, USA Today: “More than half the states are reducing Medicaid services and payments to health care providers this year as the recession propelled enrollments to record levels and sapped money from treasuries. Governors who will meet with President Obama this weekend have taken some actions to close budget deficits. Arizona froze enrollment in its Children’s Health Insurance Program. California plans to close adult day health care centers next month. Nevada is cutting coverage for eyeglasses, dentures and hearing aids…”
• Report: Without more federal help, states will likely cut Medicaid, By David Goldstein, February 18, 2010, Kansas City Star: “Unless Congress bails them out, states probably will have to cut health coverage for low-income families and others without insurance, a new report says. Lawmakers included higher Medicaid reimbursement funds for states in last year’s economic stimulus bill, but the money will expire Dec. 31. Without an extension, most states won’t be able to ensure that eligible Medicaid beneficiaries will be served, according to Families USA, a nonpartisan health advocacy group, which issued the report Thursday…”

Once stigmatized, food stamps find acceptance, By Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff, February 10, 2010, New York Times: “A decade ago, New York City officials were so reluctant to give out food stamps, they made people register one day and return the next just to get an application. The welfare commissioner said the program caused dependency and the poor were ‘better off’ without it. Now the city urges the needy to seek aid (in languages from Albanian to Yiddish). Neighborhood groups recruit clients at churches and grocery stores, with materials that all but proclaim a civic duty to apply - to ‘help New York farmers, grocers, and businesses.’ There is even a program on Rikers Island to enroll inmates leaving the jail. ‘Applying for food stamps is easier than ever,’ city posters say. The same is true nationwide. After a U-turn in the politics of poverty, food stamps, a program once scorned as ‘welfare,’ enjoys broad new support. Following deep cuts in the 1990s, Congress reversed course to expand eligibility, cut red tape and burnish the program’s image, with a special effort to enroll the working poor. These changes, combined with soaring unemployment, have pushed enrollment to record highs, with one in eight Americans now getting aid…”

• 1,500 families may lose food stamp benefits, By James Rufus Koren, January 23, 2010, Contra Costa Times: “Nearly 1,500 San Bernardino County families could lose some or all of their food stamp benefits if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest budget recommendation goes through. Troublingly, some groups say, families who stand to lose state-funded food stamps might not know they have those benefits until they’re gone. ‘The constituency who receives this are unaware of it in a way that would allow them to mobilize to fight it,’ said Matthew Sharp, who works with the nonprofit group California Food Policy Advocates. ‘The benefits are invisible to the client.’ In a Jan. 8 budget presentation, Schwarzenegger recommended eliminating the California Food Assistance Program, which provides food stamp benefits to legal U.S. residents who have not lived in the U.S. long enough to receive traditional federally funded food stamps. While the California Food Aid Program and the federal food stamps program - also called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP - are separate, Californians essentially apply for both programs when they apply for food stamps…”
• More Idahoans on food stamps than ever, By Brian Murphy, January 26, 2010, Idaho Statesman: “A record number of Idahoans are receiving food stamps, a sign that the state’s economy still struggles. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is processing 9,000 new food stamp applications each month, said Tom Shanahan, a department spokesman. More than 176,600 people are enrolled in the program - more than double the 2007 level. ‘We’re setting records every month,’ Shanahan said. ‘Food stamps are a good indicator of the number of people living near poverty. We’re seeing the effects of layoffs and high unemployment.’ Idahoans typically are reluctant to accept government aid, and the state has a relatively low rate of eligible people applying for aid. Around 60 percent of eligible people actually apply for aid, Shanahan said. A department official testified to lawmakers last week that 33 percent of people applying for help in the last two years had never applied before…”

Welfare rolls up in ‘09; more enroll in assistance programs, By Richard Wolf, January 25, 2010, USA Today: “Welfare rolls rose in 2009 for the first time in 15 years, but the 5% increase was dwarfed by spikes in the number of people receiving food stamps and unemployment insurance. The cash-assistance program that once helped more than 14 million people served an average of 4 million in the 2009 fiscal year, up from 3.8 million in fiscal 2008. By comparison, there were more than 37 million people receiving food stamps in September, an increase of 18% from the year before. The number receiving unemployment benefits more than doubled, to about 9.1 million. The disparity has caused some of those involved in passing the 1996 welfare overhaul to question whether it’s failing to help victims of the recession…”

• Food stamp use soars, By Keyonna Summers, January 9, 2010, Florida Today: “The gnawing feeling of an empty stomach is something Neville Durant became accustomed to after losing his job as a restaurant cook two years ago. Though he searched daily for work to support himself and his paraplegic brother, jobs were scarce. The latest unemployment rate in Brevard County hit 11.9 percent. In August, Durant signed up for food stamps. ‘I never thought I would have to turn to food stamps,’ said Durant, 45, of Cocoa. ‘You think things will get better but then you turn to that point of desperation . . . when your stomach starts growling. You can’t go out looking for a job starving.’ Durant said food stamps have helped give him peace of mind. There’s food in the house. And he’s not alone. There are about 30,000 households in Brevard County currently receiving food stamps — a number that’s tripled in the past decade and more than doubled in just the past four years. Nearly 9,000 families signed up in the past year alone…”
• Use of food stamps soars in Vermont, By Tim Johnson, January 10, 2010, Burlington Free Press: “Vermonters using food stamps have increased nearly 80 percent over the last four years, and about 1 in 8 state residents now relies on this federally funded program. But Vermont’s food-security profile also includes two other noteworthy statistics:
  • About one-fourth of the people eligible for food stamps — now known as 3SquaresVT — have not signed up. That’s according to a national survey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which put Vermont’s participation rate at 73 percent (compared to a national average of 66 percent).
  • Of those in Vermont who are receiving food assistance, about 1 in 12 has no other source of income. The number of Vermonters depending solely on 3SquaresVT totaled 7,139 in November, according to the Department of Children and Families, which administers the program…”

• Kids on food stamps jump double digits, By Mark Curnutte, January 7, 2010, Cincinnati Enquirer: “The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other economic indicators continued to inch upward Thursday, but a new national analysis suggests that even more children will be hurled into poverty before the recovery takes hold. In fact, Ohio saw an 18 percent increase and Kentucky an 11 percent rise in the number of children receiving federal food stamp assistance between August 2008 and August 2009, according to the analysis ‘The Effects of the Recession on Child Poverty.’ The analysis was released Thursday by the Brookings Institution and First Focus, a bipartisan advocacy organization working to make children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. In that 12-month span, 3.4 million additional children went on food stamps…”
• Food stamp usage grows in sagging economy, By Margie Peterson, January 4, 2010, Allentown Morning Call: “Not long ago, John was a homeowner with a car, a job and his pride. Once solidly middle class, the machine operator from Bethlehem lost his job and began the painful descent into the burgeoning ranks of the nouveau poor. ‘I never in a million years thought I would lose my job,’ said John, a Persian Gulf War veteran and married father of two children who asked that his last name not be used. ‘It’s hard not being the breadwinner of the family. We used to give donations and everything, and to have it turn around on you is really unbelievable. We’re hanging onto our house by a thread.’ With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, he has plenty of company. Local advocates for the poor say they are seeing new demographics of people seeking government help such as food stamps. From September 2008 to September 2009, the number of Pennsylvanians getting food stamps increased by 18.9 percent. Northampton County saw the number of households participating rise by 23.8 percent during that time, while Lehigh County had an 11.7 percent increase…”

• Midnight in the U.S. food-stamp economy, By Nicole Maestri and Lisa Baertlein, December 18, 2009, Macon Daily: “At 11 p.m. on the last day of the month, shoppers flock to the nearest Walmart. They load their carts with food and household items and wait for the midnight hour. That’s when food stamp credits are loaded on their electronic benefits transfer cards. ‘Once the clock strikes midnight and EBT cards are charged, you can see our results start to tick up,’ says Tom Schoewe, Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s chief financial officer. As food stamps become an increasingly common currency in a struggling U.S. economy, they are dictating changes in how even the biggest retailers do business. From Costco to Wal-Mart, store chains are rethinking years of strategy as they watch prized customers lose jobs and turn to this benefit, the stigma of which is disappearing not just in society, but in corporate America. Besides staffing up for the spike in shoppers on the first day of the month, retailers are adjusting when and what they stock, updating point-of-sale systems to accept food stamps and shifting expansion plans to focus on lower-income shoppers…”
• Food stamp recipients up in Mississippi, By Gary Pettus, December 15, 2009, Jackson Clarion-Ledger: “Charles Penton keeps a log of the jobs he has asked for since moving his family to Mississippi a couple of months ago. The number of turndowns is about 15 or 20 now, said the unemployed security guard. His wife works part time, but he’s still looking. Meanwhile, his family of four, including two school-age children, must eat. ‘So, rather than put a strain on the family as far as having enough food, we applied for food stamps,’ he said. ‘It’s been a godsend.’ Apparently, that is the case for more than 563,000 Mississippians, or one in every five…”
• Food stamps filling void, By Matt Kakley, December 28, 2009, Sun Chronicle: “Both nationally and right here at home, more and more people are turning to food stamps this holiday season to help put dinner on the table as they grapple with the worsening effects of economic recession. Around the area, residents are signing up in droves for the benefit as many continue to struggle finding jobs and face pressure to keep up with mounting mortgage and other bills. Elaine Petrasky of Attleboro Self Help said her organization, which helps area residents sign up for the state-run benefit, has seen a spike in the number of people looking for food assistance in recent months…”

• Hawaii’s welfare numbers rising for first time in decade, By Mary Vorsino, December 27, 2009, Honolulu Advertiser: “For the first time in a decade, the number of Hawai’i families receiving state- or federally funded cash benefits is up from the year before as the economic crisis hits the state’s poorest in what advocates say illustrates the scope of need in the community. Advocates also worry more increases are still to come. This year, the average welfare caseload in the Islands increased by about 4 percent compared with 2008 - or by about 300 families. ‘This is the safety net,’ said Debbie Shimizu, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers-Hawai’i, adding, ‘This group is probably going to get bigger…’”
• Welfare program for jobless on rise, By Sara Gavin, December 28, 2009, Charleston Daily Mail: “After declining steadily for the past decade, temporary welfare payments from the state to families who have exhausted all other benefits are on the rise again. WV WORKS, administered by the Department of Health and Human Resources, was restructured in 1997 to provide temporary assistance to families who have exhausted other benefit avenues. The program initially carried a caseload of nearly 38,000. It is part of the larger cash assistance program known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. WV Works cases had been declining steadily over the past decade, bottoming out at about 9,000 statewide. But over the past 18 months officials have seen a steady uptick of about 1,800 additional cases, bringing the new total to almost 11,000 in West Virginia…”

• Error inflates Missouri food stamp numbers, By Chad Livengood, December 15, 2009, Springfield News-Leader: “The state of Missouri has been over-counting the number of residents getting food stamp assistance for seven years — by more than a quarter of a million people in September. The reporting error inflated the number of Missourians on food stamps in September by 263,408 — from 855,408 to the reported 1,119,067, according to the Department of Social Services, which administers the food stamp program. The reporting error, which did not lead to additional food stamps being issued, was apparently caused by a computer coding error dating back to 2002, said DSS spokesman Scott Rowson…”
• Missouri reported inflated food stamp figures to feds, By David A. Lieb (AP), December 14, 2009, Kansas City Star: “Missouri acknowledged Monday that it reported inflated numbers of food stamp recipients to the federal government, calling into question millions of dollars of bonuses paid to the state for running one of the nation’s top-flight programs. The Department of Social Services said a computer programming error has consistently exaggerated the figures submitted since September 2002. For example: the agency reported more than 1.1 million food stamp recipients this September. It now says the actual number may be closer to 855,000. The errors generally occurred when one of several food stamp participants in a household left - and thus no longer was receiving benefits - but still was counted by the computer-generated report as if he or she remained in the home…”

Food stamp numbers soaring, By Brad Cain (AP) and Susan Palmer, December 10, 2009, Eugene Register-Guard: “The number of Oregonians receiving food stamps has risen 36 percent over the past year and is expected to climb through 2010 as the state continues to contend with high unemployment, according to figures released Wednesday. In Lane County, 70,155 people are on food stamps, or about one in five residents. The figures released by the state Department of Human Services show that more than 650,000 Oregonians now rely on food stamps, or one out of six Oregon residents. John Radich, manager of the Lane County DHS branch, said his office has seen a steady increase in applications of 1½ to 2 percent a month for the past 18 months…”

• Hard times, hard choices: The decision to go on food stamps, By Jim Spencer, December 6, 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Three years ago, the National Republican Congressional Committee gave Ini Augustine a Congressional Medal of Distinction, recognizing her prospering temporary-employment business. Today, Augustine is among tens of thousands of Minnesotans forced on to food stamps for the first time by a recession that first imploded the stock market and now has exploded stereotypes of welfare recipients. ‘I’ve been working since I was 13,’ Augustine, 28, said. ‘I never had trouble finding a job.’ Until now…”
• In Twin Cities, foods stamps are feeding the suburbs, By Jason Hoppin and MaryJo Webster, December 7, 2009, Pioneer Press: “Off carefully planned streets and behind manicured lawns, welfare is increasingly putting food on the dinner tables of Minnesota’s suburban families. As job losses batter Minnesota’s economy - 70 percent of the state’s $1.2 billion deficit is attributed to lost wages - the use of food stamps, called Food Support in Minnesota, is on the rise. But a look at the numbers shows that while the use of food stamps is still most prevalent in the urban core, it is in the suburbs where their use is rising the fastest. Both wealthier and less diverse than other parts of the state, the suburbs are often perceived to be free of the ills that gnaw at bigger cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul. But over the past decade, that has started to change…”
• Number of S.J. residents receiving food assistance up by thousands, By Zachary K. Johnson, December 7, 2009, Stockton Record: “Thousands more county residents now receive food assistance every month than did just a year ago, mirroring a nationwide climb in the number of people receiving federal food stamps benefits. In October, 77,814 county residents benefited from the program, an 18 percent increase from the 65,861 residents in October 2008, according to San Joaquin County Human Services Agency, which administers the program. The number of people in the program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, has been rising steadily since at least July 2008, when the number of people getting the benefit was at 63,520…”
• Under-use of program costs county millions, By Zachary K. Johnson, December 7, 2009, Stockton Record: “Up to 142,000 people in San Joaquin County struggle to afford enough to eat, but many of them are not receiving federal assistance to help put food on the table, according to reports recently released by a statewide advocacy group. If everyone eligible for food stamps benefits in the county received them, another $46.8 million in federal money would flow into the county each year, according to the California Food Policy Advocates. But the impact would be greater, generating $86 million in economic activity as food stamp beneficiaries spend more money, according to the group’s Lost Dollars, Empty Plates report released last month…”

Retailers take notice as record numbers turn to food stamps, By Tim Grant, December 4, 2009, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “A historic high number of Pennsylvanians — many of whom are middle-class families experiencing job loss and reduced work hours — are being forced to rely on government help to put food on the table. Records from the state Department of Public Welfare show there were 1.3 million people in the state who might have gone hungry if not for the federal food assistance program during the first 10 months of this year. Of that number, 136,563 are residents of Allegheny County. It is the highest number of food stamp recipients on record for the county and the state. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of food stamp recipients is at record highs across the nation. With more people receiving assistance than ever before and retailers across the country struggling to maintain if not increase sales, many stores that had not previously accepted food stamps are taking steps to do so…”

• Food stamp use soars, and stigma fades, By Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff, November 28, 2009, New York Times: “With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs. Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare…”
• Food stamp estimate sparks poverty debate, By Lindsey Tanner (AP), November 28, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “The estimate was startling and made headlines around the country: Almost half of all U.S. kids will be on food stamps at some time during childhood. How could it be true in the land of plenty, in the midst of an obesity epidemic, skeptics wondered. Surprisingly, many statisticians and policy analysts say the projection seems about right. Where they differ, along ideological lines, is in interpreting what it all means. Most would agree that people on food stamps aren’t necessarily starving, and some might not be even close to it. It’s also clear that people who need food stamps the most often don’t get them…”
• Food-stamp administration: Pa. ranks high, N.J. low, By Alfred Lubrano, November 28, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Critical of how some states administer food stamps for the hungriest Americans, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has ranked state performance, with Pennsylvania listed among the best and New Jersey among the worst. USDA officials indicated last week that certain states ‘have not served . . . taxpayers well,’ according to a letter from the agency to state food-stamp administrators that was first reported on by the Associated Press. The essential criticism is that although many people are eligible for food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, they do not receive them, in part because of bureaucratic processing difficulties…”
• One in six Alabamians get funds for food, By Kim Chandler, November 29, 2009, Birmingham News: “Nearly one in six Alabamians re­ceive food assistance, ac­cording to the most recent numbers available from the state Department of Human Resources. The troubled economy is sending Alabamians in record numbers to sign up for help in feeding their families…”

USDA concern growing as reports shows states struggle to administer food stamps, By Henry C. Jackson (AP), November 24, 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “With more Americans going hungry than ever before, the Agriculture Department is concerned that dozens of states aren’t adequately administering food stamp programs designed to provide food to low-income Americans. Several states have run the program in a way that is ‘problematic and resulted in a more complex and difficult enrollment process,’ the department said in a letter to state administrators dated Nov. 20 and obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press…”

• Recession bites the poor, By Jazmine Ulloa, November 7, 2009, Brownsville Herald: “At least ‘from a technical perspective,’ as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in September, some economists believe the recession is very likely over. But a study released this week emphasized high levels of poverty among children in the United States - a problem that has long been pervasive in the country, even during positive economic times, public policy analysts say. The study in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youth will be on food stamps at some point in childhood, and the most recent recession could push the numbers up. The findings come from an analysis of 30 years of national data in a time span of economic highs and lows, including the early 1980s recession…”
• Food stamps: a canary in the coal mine?, By Douglas C. Lyons, November 7, 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “It’s an eye-popping statistic, no matter how you cut it: 90 percent of all black youngsters in the United States will be on food stamps at some point of their childhood. The statistic comes from a Washington University in St. Louis study and published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Its author, Mark Rank, was quoted as saying the study ‘… shows that the period of childhood, rather than a period of safety and security, is really a time, for a lot of kids, of economic turmoil and risk…’”

Ky. increases number of kids in health programs, By Beth Musgrave, November 3, 2009, Lexington Herald-Leader: “State officials said Monday that they are on target to enroll 35,000 children in two key public health programs by the end of 2009, six months ahead of schedule. In November 2008, Gov. Steve Beshear pledged to increase the number of children in Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program or Medicaid programs by decreasing some of the road blocks to the government health insurance program for low-income families. Currently, there are 32,000 new children enrolled in the two programs, Beshear said at a press conference Monday at Second Street School in Frankfort. But both programs combined have enrolled on average 2,600 children a month. Current rates indicate that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees the health insurance programs, will meet the 35,000 goal by December instead of June 2010, as originally projected…”

Half of US kids will get food stamps, study says, By Lindsey Tanner (AP), November 2, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say. The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis. ‘Your neighbor may be using some of these programs but it’s not the kind of thing people want to talk about,’ Rank said. The analysis was released Monday in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The authors say it’s a medical issue pediatricians need to be aware of because children on food stamps are at risk for malnutrition and other ills linked with poverty…”

• Rate of enrollment in Medicaid rose rapidly, report says, By Kevin Sack, September 30, 2009, New York Times: “The recession is driving up enrollment in Medicaid at higher than expected rates, threatening gargantuan state budget gaps even as Congress and the White House seek to expand the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, according to a survey released Wednesday. The annual survey of state Medicaid directors, conducted for the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, found that the program had been spared the worst effects of massive state budget shortfalls because of federal aid in the stimulus package. But it also revealed grave concerns about what will happen when that relief dries up at the close of 2010…”
• 100,000 Ohio workers getting Medicaid, By Catherine Candisky, September 30, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: “They might work for some of Ohio’s largest employers but more than 100,000 low-wage employees rely on taxpayers for their health coverage. Legislation that soon will be introduced in the General Assembly would require the state to publish annually the names of companies with the most employees receiving Medicaid and other government subsidies…”
• Feds may pay for R.I. Medicaid expansion, By Ted Nesi, September 29, 2009, Providence Business Journal: “The federal government would pick up the full cost of expanding Medicaid coverage in Rhode Island for five years under a special provision of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care reform bill. Increasing the number of Americans eligible for Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor, is a key provision of all the various health bills moving through Congress…”
• Medicaid on chopping block, By Chris Christoff, September 29, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “A major hurdle to enacting a new state budget by the Thursday deadline could be resolved this afternoon with expected approval of major cuts in Medicaid and state help for the mentally ill. That will intensify lobbying for a 3% assessment on all Michigan physicians to offset the Medicaid reductions. ..”

• Backlog, processing errors bedevil food stamp program, By Corrie MacLaggan, September 24, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “Tens of thousands of Texas families are waiting as long as several months for food stamps as a surge in applications lands on an already strained system. And when state workers do process the applications, they often do it wrong. One out of every six food stamp applications is incorrectly processed by state workers, according to state data. In some cases, that means eligible families are being denied benefits. That error rate has skyrocketed since 2004, rising from 2.8 percent to 21.4 percent last year. For the first half of this year, the error rate fell to 17.4 percent. This comes as Texas is struggling with a food stamp application backlog, failing to process more than a third of applications within the 30 days required by the federal government…”
• More residents using food stamps, By Michelle Saxton, September 24, 2009, Charleston Daily Mail: “About 37,000 more West Virginians were using food stamps this summer than last year, reflecting a historic high nationally in the number of people who need help paying for food. Across the country, more people are using food stamps - and getting more in benefits - due in part to the struggling economy and a financial boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, nutrition service officials say. About 35.1 million Americans received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits this past June, up about 22 percent from 28.7 million in June 2008, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Nutrition Service spokeswoman Jean Daniel. For West Virginia, those figures were 315,938 individual participants in June, up from 278,713 in June 2008, Daniel said…”

• Federal Katrina dollars can impact Louisiana’s Medicaid benefits, By Matthew Hamilton, September 7, 2009, Monroe News-Star: “G.B. Cooley chief executive officer Ben Pitts and ARCO executive director Roma Kidd refer to it as Louisiana’s ‘Medicaid cliff.’ In January 2011, a little-known formula will prompt the federal government to slash $1 billion in health care spending for the poorest residents of one of the poorest states in the country. Unless legislators make tough political choices to close the gap, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and Medicaid providers like Pitts and Kidd fear a devastating economic blow and the loss of health care for thousands across the state. The seeds of the crisis were planted in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, the federal government pumped billions of dollars into the state, including $5.4 billion in Road Home subsidies. According to the DHH, the cash infusion spiked Louisiana’s per-capita income growth more than 42 percent in Louisiana…”
• Alabama Medicaid rolls jump by 50,000 over two year span, By Kim Chandler, September 7, 2009, Birmingham News: “Alabama Medicaid enrollment jumped by nearly 50,000 people in the past two years, with the largest increase coming in the number of children, teens and pregnant women enrolled. ‘When we’re at double-digit unemployment, it has an effect on the entire safety net,’ said Sen. Roger Bedford, chairman of the Senate General Fund budget committee and a Democrat from Russellville. ‘You see it not only in Medicaid, but also in food stamps.’ Alabama Medicaid Agency spokeswoman Robin Rawls said agency officials believe the economy is likely the cause, and the largest increase is in the program most likely to include working families…”

Arizona faces ‘financial tsunami’ over Medicaid, by Jeff Brady, September 1, 2009, National Public Radio: “Arizona has one of the highest Medicaid rates in the country. About 1 out of every 5 residents is covered by the program for the poor and disabled. That doesn’t include illegal immigrants, who are barred from receiving state services. And the Medicaid rolls there are increasing rapidly in this economy, primarily due to slumps in the construction and service industries…”

Minnesotans jam lines to join state health care plan, By Warren Wolfe, August 25, 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Applications for MinnesotaCare, the state’s insurance plan for the poor and working poor, have shot up 25 percent so far this year. The increase appears to reflect layoffs in a weak economy and the rising cost of health insurance, which has caused employers to drop coverage or shift more costs to employees. Last month alone, MinnesotaCare applications rose 43 percent from July 2008, reaching 5,473. The crush of applicants has doubled the time required to process applications, to eight weeks, and phone lines are often jammed because the agency that manages the program now answers the phone only between 12:30 and 4 p.m. so workers can spend more time on the paperwork backlog, officials acknowledged Monday…”

BadgerCare Plus Core has huge enrollment backlog, By Diana Montaño, August 14, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The overwhelming demand for BadgerCare Plus Core, the new Medicaid-funded insurance program for low-income childless adults, has the state struggling to process the large number of applications filed in the program’s first two months. The lag is frustrating applicants, community health workers and health officials alike. ‘I feel like it’s $60 down the drain,’ said Cassandra Fier, 23, of the $60 application fee she paid June 15. She has not heard anything since. ‘If the state’s going to be slow, they need to be sending something to individuals letting them know what’s going on.’ From June 15 to Aug. 7, the state Department of Health Services received 37,211 applications for the Core program, of which only 5,000 were processed. Under program guidelines, the state has 30 days to process an application and, if approved, coverage is to begin on the following 1st or 15th of the month…”

Alabama Medicaid could add 237,000 to rolls, but money an issue, By Sean Reilly, August 13, 2009, Mobile Press-Register: “At least 237,000 Alabamians could gain health coverage through the state Medicaid program under legislation now moving through Congress, according to an official agency estimate, and the expanded rolls could end up costing state taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year. The estimate, provided at the Press-Register’s request, is based on raising the state’s stringent income eligibility cutoffs to match the federal poverty level, now $18,310 a year for a family of three…”

• Texas sued over delay in food stamps, By Gary Scharrer, August 10, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “Rachel Cavazos is getting close to desperate. A pending divorce and no full-time job have left her struggling to feed her four children. She applied for food stamps in April but is still is waiting for approval. ‘It’s very upsetting. It’s very frustrating,’ the 32-year-old Houston woman said. ‘It’s very hurtful, especially when somebody doesn’t give you the benefit of the doubt. The help is not for me. It’s for my babies. I don’t want my children to suffer.’ Cavazos is one of thousands of Texans waiting for food stamps, demand for which has spiked in recent months. The long wait has prompted some advocates to file a class-action lawsuit to try to force Texas to comply with federal regulations requiring that most eligible applicants be certified for food stamps within 30 days…”
• Still more Utahns apply for food stamps, By Julia Lyon, August 10, 2009, Salt Lake Tribune: “As the nation’s economy appears to shift into recovery mode, the number of Utah families relying on food stamps continues to break records. As of July, just over 86,000 households were receiving more than $25 million in food stamps, which provide low-income families money for food each month. The number of households increased 3.4 percent between June and July, slightly more than the 3.2 percent growth rate the month before…”

• Holes in the safety net: Medicaid falls short just as some need it most, By Tom Curry and JoNel Aleccia, July 27, 2009, MSNBC.com: “Doctors at the Maple City Health Care Center, a neighborhood clinic where the toddler’s family receives most care, couldn’t diagnose the problem. The child needed to see a specialist, but no local dermatologist would agree to accept Medicaid, the government’s safety net plan. Instead, Antonia Mejorado, 33, has to drive nearly two hours to see a dermatologist willing to treat her daughter’s potentially serious illness…”
• Colorado Medicaid list swells to record, By Tim Hoover, July 28, 2009, Denver Post: “Colorado had a 14 percent spike in Medicaid enrollment in the budget year that ended in June, a record-setting rate that capped a year with the largest-ever number of people in the health insurance program. As of June 30, there were 467,556 Coloradans on Medicaid. That’s 79,488, or 20.5 percent, more than in the same month a year before. The June figure represented the highest total in the 40 years Colorado has been participating in the state and federally funded program, which covers low-income pregnant women, children, the elderly and the disabled. Nearly 10 percent of the state’s residents are now enrolled in Medicaid…”

• Food stamp use in R.I. tops 100,000, By Ted Nesi, July 8, 2009, Providence Business News: “The number of Rhode Islanders receiving food stamps was up 19.3 percent in April compared with a year earlier, topping 100,000 for the first time, according to new government figures…”
• Lean times mean heavy food stamp increase, By Ivy Farguheson, July 6, 2009, Muncie Star Press: “Leslie Barnhouse hopes that one day she won’t need to receive food stamps, but today is not the day to make that break — for her or thousands of other aid recipients…”
• Detroit’s food banks strain to serve middle class, By Alex P. Kellogg, July 10, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Battered by massive layoffs, home foreclosures and nearly a decade of economic decline, more residents of Detroit’s middle-class suburbs are having a tough time putting food on the table. State agencies and nonprofit groups that serve the poor in southeast Michigan say they are seeing an unprecedented rise in demand for food assistance across the region. They point to a pronounced increase in those seeking aid for the first time, often families unaccustomed to depending on food-aid programs. And they expect the numbers to grow as Michigan’s jobs picture worsens…”

State welfare rolls feel impact of recession, By Pam Fessler, July 3, 2009, National Public Radio: “Welfare caseloads have been going up in most states over the past year, but not in every state. In fact, cases are going down in some of the hardest-hit areas. That’s raised questions about whether the program is an adequate safety net for families in need…”

• Welfare up 11 percent in county, reversing a trend, By Chris L. Jenkins, July 2, 2009, Washington Post: “After years of declining caseloads, the sputtering economy is causing a surge in welfare rolls in Fairfax County…”
• More seek relief in bad times, By Gerry Weiss, June 28, 2009, Erie Times-News: “The nation’s deep recession continues to take a burdening toll on people in Erie County, forcing a sharp rise in the number of welfare and food-stamp recipients…”

• State Medicaid coverage, costs grow, By Sarah Fisher, July 2, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “A year into a new effort to expand health coverage, recession-weary Marylanders are flocking to the state’s Medicaid program in numbers far greater than expected, costing the state $50 million more in the process…”
• A healthy start, Editorial, July 2, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “At a time when some cash-strapped states are contemplating reducing Medicaid coverage, Maryland has boldly moved in the opposite direction. Today marks the first anniversary of a program that has brought taxpayer-financed medical assistance to more than 44,000 low-income parents, the vast majority of whom lacked health care before…”