• 99 week maximum for jobless benefits may drop as low as 59 weeks, By Olivera Perkins, January 26, 2012, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “People thrust out of work in Ohio might have to settle for a much shorter period of unemployment benefits. Jobless workers here have been able to count on 99 weeks of benefits, but the maximum could fall to as low as 59 weeks. That possibility raises a divisive question: Is 99 weeks — almost two years — too long to draw jobless benefits…?”
• Jobless benefits to expire unless Pa. House acts, By Laura Olson, January 31, 2012, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Thousands of Pennsylvanians will see their federally funded unemployment benefits expire after this week, with legislation to extend those checks lingering in the state House of Representatives. A pending measure, which passed the state Senate last week, would offer 13 additional weeks of benefits to the state’s jobless residents. The federal funding was approved by Congress in December but requires the state to tweak its unemployment compensation rules in order to receive those dollars. That bill is awaiting consideration by a House panel, which has a vote scheduled for Monday. Legislative staffers say the belatedly approved benefits would be retroactive, but pressures to also enact broader changes to the state’s unemployment compensation system could further hold up that assistance…”
• Study: Safety net misses many jobless in Nevada, By Ed Vogel, January 30, 2012, Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Las Vegans Dylan Wikoff and Jorge Suescun Hijuelos know firsthand the downward spiral that occurs once you lose your job and then exhaust your unemployment benefits without finding work. ‘I ended up homeless on Fremont Street,’ said Wikoff, a 36-year-old Marine Corps veteran who was laid off more than two years ago from a sales job at a construction supply company. ‘It was a slow downward spiral for me,’ said Hijuelos, 51, a longtime union construction worker who had never been without work for more than a few weeks until the completion of the CityCenter project. ‘I sold my car, sold my bedroom set, sold everything to pay my rent. I went from a beautiful condo to renting rooms by the week. I slept in a couple of fields.’ These polite and bright men are not unusual. They actually are some of the lucky ones in the never-ending recession in Nevada…”
• Tension rises over Maine bill tackling unemployment insurance fraud, By Steve Mistler, January 30, 2012, Lewiston Sun Journal: “A controversial bill that would increase the penalties for unemployment fraud and the qualifications to receive out-of-work benefits is meeting stiff resistance from worker advocates. The proposal, LD 1725, was presented by the Department of Labor, which argued that an increase in unemployment claims has been accompanied by an increased possibility of fraud. Additionally, employer advocates are championing a provision in the proposal that would stop exempting vacation pay from the waiting period to receive benefits. Opponents, however, say the bill’s proposal to increase potential criminal penalties for unemployment fraud from a maximum of one year to 10 years in prison is extreme for a state that has one of the nation’s lowest unemployment fraud rates. In addition, they say the bill’s increased work-search mandates will force unemployed workers to take a job well beneath their skill and wage level…”
• Senators want to end jobless benefits for fired workers, By Gina Smith, January 26, 2012, The State: “State senators said Wednesday that they want to make sure that workers who were fired cannot get state unemployment benefits in the future. A Senate panel Wednesday advanced a bill that would prevent workers fired for misconduct from receiving any state unemployment benefits. Under current law, these workers can get jobless benefits for from five to 20 weeks, depending on the type and severity of their workplace infraction. The fired workers still would be eligible for up to 58 weeks of federal unemployment benefits under the proposal…”

• State stops seeking refunds for overpaid welfare, By Marisa Lagos, January 10, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle: “The state will no longer allow counties to seek refunds from former welfare recipients who were minors when their caregivers were overpaid, officials announced in a partial win for advocates who had sued on behalf of the recipients last year. The announcement was welcome news for one of the plaintiffs in that suit, a 19-year-old Riverside County woman whose was being asked to repay $766 mistakenly given to her mother four years ago. But the other family named in the lawsuit, headed by Fresno County resident Clarence Ayers - who receives $334 a month to help raise his 14-year-old great-granddaughter, Irene - will still be on the hook, said attorney Patti Prunhuber. That’s because the state decided only to halt collections from former recipients, she said. In cases where the recipient is a minor who is still receiving welfare, county welfare agencies will be allowed to continue pursuing the debt, said Prunhuber. The Public Interest Law Project in Oakland, where she works, filed the suit in November…”
• State will stop trying to recoup past erroneous food stamp overpayments to poor, By Catherine Candisky, December 21, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The state will no longer try to recoup food stamp overpayments made in error to poor families prior to Jan. 1, 2000. The announcement comes a month after Gov. John Kasich dumped efforts initiated by his predecessor to collect more than 10-year-old overpayments of cash assistance to former welfare recipients. State officials said the rationale for both policy changes is the same - they don’t want to create further hardship for vulnerable families by trying to collect non-fraudulent debts more than a decade old…”

• Extended jobless benefits likely to end soon for 4,777 in area, By Richard Craver, January 7, 2012, Winston-Salem Journal: “The final unemployment-benefit lifeline for about 23,000 North Carolinians appears likely to be cut off as scheduled on Jan. 28. Although Congress agreed Dec. 23 to extend federal benefits for two months, it appears unlikely that the General Assembly will agree to allow North Carolina to borrow more money from the U.S. Labor Department. As of Dec. 29, North Carolina had borrowed $2.67 billion from the federal government - the fourth-highest amount among 27 participating states - to pay up to 20 weeks of state-extended unemployment benefits. Those benefits are available only after claimants exhaust up to 26 weeks of initial state benefits and up to 53 weeks - representing four tiers - of federal benefits. There are 4,777 people in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina in the extended state benefit level. The state’s unemployment rate was 10 percent in November. The national rate was 8.5 percent in December, officials announced Friday…”
• Extra jobless benefits in peril, By Catherine Candisky, January 7, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “More than 20,000 long-term unemployed Ohioans will lose up to 20 weeks of jobless benefits unless state lawmakers agree to take advantage of a more-favorable formula for determining which states qualify for the federal aid. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is urging legislators to make the fix, which will cost the state nothing because the benefits are funded entirely by the federal government, said Benjamin Johnson, spokesman for the state agency which oversees unemployment benefits. The Republican-controlled General Assembly is expected to oblige…”

• In Ohio’s poorest county, people do what it takes, By Jessica Alaimo, December 4, 2011, Coshocton Tribune: “Brock Brewster’s truck dominated the single-lane road in western Pike County and rumbled over an extension cord. This extension cord has been strung across this Latham road for two years. It powers the lights of a white-and-brown trailer, using the electricity from a home across the road. It’s the only source of electricity for the trailer’s owner, who said she uses it to power her lights. She uses a wood stove to stay warm…”
• The new poor: Situational poverty on the rise locally, By Kristina Smith Horn, December 3, 2011, Port Clinton News Herald: “For most of his life, Gilbert Turner was a successful businessman. At 16, his family moved from Mississippi to Danbury Township, where he worked two jobs — one at U.S. Gypsum and one at the now-closed Standard Products. Turner worked hard, saved his money and built a prosperous hotel and restaurant business in Port Clinton and Toledo that he ran with his wife. Turner, who still retains a bit of the Southern drawl of his youth, reminisces about buying a new car in the 1940s and parking it in downtown Port Clinton…”
• Education a fresh start for those in poverty, By Kurt Moore, December 6, 2011, Marion Star: “When Kalya Wiseman got pregnant as a teen, her first plan was to be a young housewife. ‘It totally didn’t work out,’ she said. The search was on for a new plan. ‘I realized I needed to get an education so I could go to college and have a better life for me and my son.’ Wiseman, 20, is among students enrolled at Marion County Jobs for Ohio’s Graduates. Its students refer to it as their second chance, and sometimes as their only hope as many struggle to not fall into a cycle of poverty…”
• Poverty: Charity care on rise in county, By Leonard Hayhurst, December 6, 2011, Coshocton Tribune: “Coshocton Hospital won’t turn a patient away. But with the economy still struggling, fewer come in with adequate medical insurance or the money to pay. Uncompensated care at the hospital has risen more than $3 million since 2008, hospital spokeswoman Mary Ellen Given said. Factoring inpatient and outpatient charity care and cases where the hospital absorbed the leftover cost from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, the hospital spent $8.8 million in 2010 for uncompensated care compared with $7.1 million in 2009 and $5.1 million in 2008…”
• Poverty: Mental illnesses compound issue, By Russ Zimmer, December 5, 2011, Lancaster Eagle Gazette: “Tim Schrack walks 20 minutes, rain or shine, to his second-shift job coating and shipping seat-belt brackets. He’s estranged from almost his entire family and on his own for the first time in his 56 years of life. Schrack is bipolar, a condition he’s ignored — to his detriment — for decades. Schrack, by his own account, is the happiest he’s ever been. ‘I just never thought I could make it on my own,’ a grinning Schrack said inside his new apartment…”
• More Licking County kids getting lunch aid, By Seth Roy, December 4, 2011, Newark Advocate: “The soles of a student’s shoes were coming apart one day at school, and a teacher asked when he might get a new pair. ‘He said, ‘We’re poor; we can’t get new shoes,” Stevenson Elementary art teacher Shannon Montgomery said. ‘At this age, the kids are much more open about it.’ Schools across the country have seen their population of students in poverty rise in recent years. Heath’s population of students receiving free or reduced price lunches rose from 26 percent to 37 percent from 2006 to 2010; 42 percent of Stevenson’s population receives some lunch assistance…”
• Seasonal employment makes winter difficult, By Kristina Smith Horn, December 5, 2011, News-Messenger: “Each year, Val Kochensparger is laid off from her job just before Christmas. She collects unemployment for 8 to 10 weeks, and she and her husband rely on his income to help get them through the winter. When the ice clears off Lake Erie, usually in March, Kochensparger goes back to her job managing the ticket booth at the Miller Boat Line on Catawba Island…”

• 160,000 jobless Michiganders at risk of losing safety net, By Katharine Yung, December 5, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Unless Congress acts to continue extended unemployment benefits, it could be a grim holiday season for nearly 160,000 Michiganders. An end to the extended benefits would immediately impact 61,000 state residents who are getting this federal aid after exhausting their 26 weeks of state-funded assistance. Another 98,743 people who are receiving state benefits would no longer get additional help if they are still jobless after 26 weeks…”
• Jobless benefits a holiday uncertainty, By Catharine Candisky, December 4, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “For the second year in a row, thousands of unemployed Ohioans face the holidays uncertain about whether their jobless benefits will continue into the new year. Nearly 77,000 jobless Ohioans - more than a quarter of whom rely on unemployment to pay their mortgages, utility bills and grocery bills - will exhaust benefits in early January unless Congress agrees to fund another extension of federal assistance. By early April, 107,000 more workers would fall off the rolls, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said…”
• Clock ticking on Mainers’ unemployment benefits, By Susan McMillan, December 4, 2011, Morning Sentinel: “Maine is bracing for a new wave of need as extended federal unemployment benefits near their end. If Congress does not reauthorize extended benefits, 17,000 Mainers will see their benefits run out by May, Department of Labor spokesman Adam Fisher said. The department and its 12 regional Career Centers will increase outreach to unemployment claimants and add workshops to help the long-term unemployed find work…”

Welfare roundup reaches way back to collect overpayments, By Catherine Candisky, November 16, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The state is reaching back more than a quarter of a century to collect millions in nonfraudulent overpayments to former welfare recipients, most the result of administrative errors by government workers. The state Department of Job and Family Services said an estimated 14,000 notices have been sent in an effort to collect about $18 million in welfare overpayments from before 2001. An estimated 8,000 Ohioans owe an additional $8.4 million in food-stamp overpayments that are more than 10 years old…”

• 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…”

Ohio unlikely to get $176M for jobless benefits, By Andy Brownfield (AP), August 21, 2011, Dayton Daily News: “As Ohio faced Monday’s deadline to expand unemployment benefits and receive $176 million in federal stimulus money, state officials had not applied for the money and the General Assembly had not scheduled any sessions to take any action.  The federal government set aside $7 billion for unemployment compensation for states that broaden their unemployment programs. The provision is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. ‘The idea was to reward states who update laws to increase access to benefits,’ said Wayne Vroman, an unemployment compensation expert under contract with the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. But Gov. John Kasich says it makes no sense for the state to make long-term changes to a fiscally-damaged system for a one-time payment, spokesman Rob Nichols said. And the jobs department, which administers the state’s unemployment compensation system, is not seeking any changes, department spokesman Ben Johnson said…”

Poverty rates leap for Ohio children, By Rita Price, August 6, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The number of Ohio counties with at least a fourth of their children living in poverty doubled in just one year, with Franklin County tumbling into the group. According to a report from the Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio, 31 Ohio counties - more than a third of the state total - had child-poverty rates of 25 percent or higher in 2009. That’s a jump from 15 counties in 2008, according to U.S. census estimates compiled by the child-advocacy organization…”

Thousands set to lose jobless benefits, By Randy Tucker, July 18, 2011, Oxford Press: “Jobless benefits for thousands of displaced Ohio workers are set to expire at the beginning of next year, an event some economists fear will sap hundreds of millions of dollars in personal income from the state’s economy and further stall the economic recovery. Others, however, say the end of extended benefits will be good for the economy because it will force jobless workers to step up their job searches and bring down the unemployment rate. The end of extended unemployment benefits that Congress approved in December 2010 for up to 99 weeks will, at least in the short run, put added pressure on food pantries and other social service agencies that are already struggling with growing demand from jobless workers. More than 33,000 Ohioans have exhausted their unemployment benefits so far this year, putting the state on pace to exceed the 47,241 beneficiaries who received their final unemployment checks in 2010, based on figures from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services…”

Help wanted: Jobs for the disabled, series homepage, Columbus Dispatch: “Thousands of adults with Down syndrome, autism and other developmental disabilities work in Ohio at jobs that pay less money than a teen-age babysitter earns. Some say the low pay is immoral; others view the federal law as a godsend…”

• Low pay linked to poverty rates, By Catherine Candisky, May 7, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Of Ohio’s 10 largest occupations, only one pays enough for a family of three to pay for food, housing and other basic needs: nursing. A report released yesterday found a job doesn’t always pay enough for families to be self-sufficient. Despite full-time employment, many still rely on food stamps, subsidized child care or other types of government assistance to make ends meet. ‘Poverty persists because … we have a lot of lower-paying jobs,’ said Philip E. Cole, executive director of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies, which commissioned the analysis. ‘We need to focus on jobs with good benefits.’ Cole said he thinks Ohio is investing more than any other state into creating jobs, and he commended Gov. John Kasich for his efforts to attract and retain employers. But planned cuts to the state’s subsidized child-care program will make it more difficult for many low-wage workers to keep their jobs because they can’t afford to pay someone to look after their kids, Cole said…”
• Report: Parents with low pay rely on aid, By Russ Zimmer, May 7, 2011, Zanesville Times Recorder: “Eight of the 10 largest occupations in Ohio do not pay enough for an adult with a young child to live without public assistance, according to a report released Friday. In fact, the median hourly wage in the state, $15.72, doesn’t allow a single earner with a baby to live free of welfare, according to Diana Pearce, the author of the report. Pearce based her findings on the self-sufficiency standard, a metric she developed 14 years ago that calculates the costs of basic living needs and the earnings required to cover them. The problem is a lack of good jobs, but Pearce added that Ohio’s situation is not unlike other states. The eight top jobs — fast-food worker is No. 1 with 151,000, and retail sales and cashiers round out the top three — represent about 18 percent of all workers in Ohio…”

Older workers who lost jobs in recession spend longer time without employment, By Cornelius Frolik, April 18, 2011, Dayton Daily News: “Ann Kingston, 59, has not found a steady job since moving back to the Dayton area in November, and she believes her age has played a role in her unsuccessful job hunt. Kingston said employers seem to view her and other older workers as more expensive, less capable of learning new technologies and unmotivated to work hard. Her experience is not uncommon. Although older workers have a lower unemployment rate than other segments of the population, they remain unemployed longer and their jobless rate rose by a larger percentage during the recession than their younger counterparts, according to a report released this month by the AARP Public Policy Institute. In Ohio last year, the annual
 average rate of unemployment for workers 55 and older was 6.4 percent, up from 3.54 percent in 2007, according to U.S. Census data. On average, 75,000 older workers were unemployed at any given time, an increase of 38,000 from 2007…”

• Families would keep child-care subsidies in Kasich’s budget, By Joe Vardon, April 12, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Mixed in with about 20 children reaching toward the sky and touching their toes yesterday was Gov. John Kasich, who tried to mirror the youngsters as they went through their stretching routine. With his own toes just out of reach, Kasich resigned himself to cheering on the children before continuing his tour of the YMCA Early Learning Center, 2879 Johnstown Rd., in Columbus. Kasich’s visit was used to highlight the provisions in his two-year, $55.5 billion budget proposal that would allow all children now enrolled in state-subsidized child-care programs to remain despite a 7 percent reduction in funds for child-care providers…”
• Child-care subsidies reduced in Missouri Senate plan, By David A. Lieb (AP), April 12, 2011, Columbia Missourian: “Thousands of low-income Missouri parents would see their state child care subsidies reduced under a budget plan a state Senate committee passed Tuesday. The plan would reduce monthly child-care subsidies for about 6,600 children while extending benefits to an estimated 570 children whose parents currently earn too much to qualify for state-subsidized care. The changes would save about $1 million in the proposed $23 billion operating budget for next year approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. But the panel chairman, Sen. Kurt Schaefer, said the greater goal is to provide a less-abrupt phase-out of benefits for working parents who get promotions and pay raises…”

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…”

Kasich hopes more healthy babies will reduce Medicaid costs, By Catherine Candisky and Joe Vardon, March 11, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Reducing the number of low-weight babies born in Ohio will be one of the initiatives to lower health-care costs that Gov. John Kasich is expected to unveil in his state budget next week. The proposal will be part of a broader effort by the Republican’s administration to rein in Medicaid spending by reducing hospitalization and other high-cost care covered by the tax-funded program, which provides health care to 2 million poor and disabled Ohioans. Yesterday, Kasich discussed low birth-weight babies and another initiative to reduce the cost of home visits by nurses and other health-care aides…”

1.5 million Ohioans among the uninsured, By Suzanne Hoholik, March 8, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “More Ohioans are uninsured, fewer businesses offer health benefits to workers and almost 250,000 people joined the state Medicaid rolls from 2008 to 2010, according to a survey released yesterday. The 2010 Ohio Family Health Survey found that the number of uninsured grew by almost 160,000 - including 15,283 children - during the two-year period. In all, there are about 1.5 million uninsured Ohioans. ‘These are preliminary numbers. They raise more questions than they answer at this point,’ said William Hayes, an adjunct assistant professor at Ohio State University’s College of Public Health. The survey also found that being uninsured is the second-largest category of health-coverage status, behind employer-sponsored health plans, for working adults 18 to 64 years old…”

30 percent of Ohio kids overweight, study shows, By Catherine Candisky, March 3, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Despite increased efforts to combat childhood obesity, the percentage of overweight children in Ohio remains at more than 30, virtually unchanged in the past five years, a state health department study released yesterday found. State officials said the findings mirror national data for all states. The causes are no surprise: lack of exercise, poor diet, poverty, lack of access to healthy foods. The study included some alarming statistics. For example, 40 percent of third-grade students drink more than two sugar-sweetened drinks a day, and youngsters who watch three or more hours of television a day were more likely to be overweight and obese than those who spend less time on the couch. Still, officials say the good news is that childhood obesity has not gotten worse…”

Tax credit helps poor, but many unaware, By Rita Price, February 25, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “As a single mother who works and goes to college, Brandi Hardgrow adheres to a budget that leaves little room for wiggle - or for unexpected car repairs. But she gets by, and a big reason is her tax savvy. Hardgrow, 29, files for the Earned Income Tax Credit and then carefully manages a hefty refund - sometimes more than $2,500 - that keeps her household humming when her job as a Columbus-schools latchkey worker pauses for summer break. ‘It’s made a total difference in my life,’ she said. Researchers say the EITC is the nation’s best poverty buffer for low-income workers. It’s also an economic boon for their communities because recipients often need to spend a big chunk of their refunds right away…”

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…”

More qualify for food aid, but few make it last, By Jessica Alaimo, January 3, 2011, Newark Advocate: “A couple of kids were trying to entertain themselves in a dull food pantry waiting room, but the adults among them were quiet. However, there was a sense of community as each person was called to walk through the four long walls of wire shelves chock full of cereal, canned goods and personal care items. There also was a refrigerator full of milk and cheese and three freezers full of meat. It was the end of the month. Christy Dilley, 26, and Natasha Blankenship, 27, both young mothers in Lancaster, were there for the same reason — their government food assistance didn’t stretch far enough. This was common for many in the room. In November, more than 1.7 million Ohioans spent $241.1 million in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds, commonly known as food stamps, which are funded by the federal government. Almost three-fourths of that amount was spent in the first half of the month, and 30 percent was spent in the first five days…”

State debt for jobless benefits looming, By Catherine Candisky, December 19, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Although the battle over extending unemployment benefits has been solved in Washington, Ohio still has no way to repay the $2.3 billion borrowed from a federal loan fund to continue the jobless benefits through the recession. Without a reprieve from Congress, that bill comes due next year, at the same time state leaders will be grappling to close a projected $8 billion shortfall in the two-year state budget that begins in July. Given the budget crisis in Ohio and other states, many are hoping the due date for repayments will be extended again or the loan wiped out altogether…”

Is ‘Race to the Top’ aid at risk?, By Catherine Candisky, November 19, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “In an effort to preserve his education plan, outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland went to Education Secretary Arne Duncan to put pressure on his successor to keep it. Strickland said yesterday that he told Duncan he fears Ohio will lose its $400 million federal Race to the Top grant if Gov.-elect John Kasich follows through on his plan to dump Strickland’s evidence-based school-funding model. ‘I asked Secretary Duncan if the (U.S.) Department of Education allowed states to change their plans’ after funds were awarded, ‘and how could it possibly be fair to other states,’ Strickland said. The governor said his evidence-based model ‘was such a vital part’ of Ohio’s plan that he questions whether the state would still qualify for the federal money…”

Poverty rising in suburban schools, By Rita Price, November 17, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Suburban school districts more known for their affluence are seeing double- and triple-digit increases in the percentage of students considered to be economically disadvantaged. A report to be released this week by KidsOhio, a Columbus-based education nonprofit organization, found that nearly half of the disadvantaged students in Franklin County now are enrolled in a suburban school district. The report documented the change over five years, from the 2004-05 school year to last school year. Although Columbus schools have the highest rate of disadvantaged kids, that district’s increase was more modest…”

• Medicaid easy to cut in theory, not reality, By Catherine Candisky, November 14, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “The state budget crisis has put a target on the backs of 2million Ohioans on Medicaid - children and pregnant women, the disabled and elderly - but scaling back the tax-funded health-care program comes with its own price tag. For every dollar Ohio cuts in Medicaid spending, it loses $2 in federal matching funds. The human toll also could be staggering. Ohio’s Medicaid program pays for: • 1 in 3 births. • Half the patients treated at Ohio’s six children’s hospitals. • 70 percent of nursing-home care. The state’s Medicaid spending has reached $15.4 billion a year. That money provides care to the poor and disabled and pays doctors, nurses, home health aides and other service providers. According to state officials, Medicaid now makes up more than 3percent of the state’s economy. But most agree the tab - $29,000 per minute - is one Ohio taxpayers can no longer afford…”
• Is Texas really thinking of opting out of Medicaid?, By Corrie MacLaggan, November 13, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “It’s been the buzz this past week in certain corners of the Texas Capitol: Is the Lone Star State really considering dropping out of the Medicaid program? GOP Gov. Rick Perry, fresh off a big re-election win and touting his new book on states’ rights, is among those who say it’s a good idea. The election results - which included a huge haul of state House seats for Republicans - have left some Capitol watchers wondering whether they should take seriously an idea that might have been immediately discarded in the past. Never mind that no state has ever ditched Medicaid. Or that the federal government typically kicks in about 6 of every 10 dollars spent on the health care program in Texas. Medicaid pays for more than half of all births and chips in for the care of nearly two-thirds of all nursing home residents in the state. And top medical industry officials say opting out of Medicaid would cripple the state’s health care system and hurt the economy…”

• ‘An illusion of treatment’, By Alan Johnson and Catherine Candisky, October 24, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Ohio’s mental-health system, once a national model, is on the verge of collapse as the state careens toward the biggest budget crisis in memory. Thousands have been slashed from the mental-health-care rolls. Others might have to wait months to see a psychiatrist. State funding for mental-health services has been decimated, Medicaid is gobbling up scarce local dollars, and hundreds of small group homes for the mentally ill have closed. Prisons, nursing facilities and homeless shelters are the new homes for thousands of mentally ill Ohioans, advocates say…”
• 1988 act worked well, for a few years, By Catherine Candisky, October 24, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “July 1, 1988, wasn’t a holiday, but Maureen Corcoran didn’t sleep the night before. ‘It was like New Year’s Eve because July 1 was the beginning of the Mental Health Act,’ said Corcoran, now Ohio’s Medicaid director, then a deputy director for the Department of Mental Health and former executive assistant to former Gov. Richard F. Celeste. ‘Nothing happened on July 1, but that’s how excited we were.’ The Mental Health Act of 1988, signed by Celeste on March 28 that year, was a watershed in Ohio’s treatment of the mentally ill. After decades of inadequate treatment, marked by tragic stories of patients unserved, mistreated or chained in hospital wards, the state was dawning a new day. Patients could leave the hospitals (or avoid going there in the first place), return to their home communities, and receive treatment, housing, transportation and other services coordinated by 53 community mental-health boards. Most important, the state funds that had paid for their hospitalization would follow them home, assuring the availability of critical restorative services…”

• Medicaid cuts: Can Kentucky limit the pain?, By Deborah Yetter, August 8, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “State lawmakers trying to cut Medicaid costs might consider Morgan Drugs in Bedford, Trimble County’s only pharmacy. Owner and pharmacist Bob Yowler depends on business from Medicaid patients to help make ends meet. Many of his customers - especially elderly and low-income people who lack transportation - have no other good option for prescriptions and advice. And the store provides about a dozen jobs - not bad for a farm community with an unemployment rate of 14 percent, Yowler said. ‘It’s a Main Street business,’ he added. While pharmacy benefits are one of Medicaid’s most expensive programs, the services provided by Morgan Drugs show that the impact of the cuts will go well beyond the poor and disabled who receive benefits. And it provides a good example of the difficult decisions lawmakers face as they look for savings in the sprawling, $5.2 billion-a-year health plan…”
• Medicaid growth burning budget, By Catherine Candisky, August 8, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “The cost of Ohio’s largest safety-net program has nearly doubled in the past decade. Taxpayers spent $14.7 billion last year to provide health coverage to poor and disabled Ohioans as Medicaid - the largest and fastest growing segment of state government - now consumes about 26 percent of the state budget. ‘That is true of health care, period,’ Greg Moody, interim director of the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, said of skyrocketing costs. “If you look at a person’s paycheck or a business’ bottom line that offers coverage, health care has been this constantly growing component and the same is true for state government…”
• Medicaid changes will hurt kids, dentists say, By Alison Knezevich, August 7, 2010, Charleston Gazette: “Fewer poor children in West Virginia will get dental care when the state changes the way it administers Medicaid later this year, a group representing dentists says. The West Virginia Dental Association believes the new set-up will burden dentists, resulting in more tax dollars being spent on administrative costs, rather than on services for needy kids, said the group’s director, Richard Stevens. The state Department of Health and Human Resources plans to contract with managed-care companies to administer benefits of patients enrolled in Medicaid, the state/federal health insurance program for the poor. These companies also are called health maintenance organizations…”

Oregon gets federal money to help unemployed avert foreclosures, By Charles Pope, August 4, 2010, The Oregonian: “The Obama administration released $600 million Wednesday to help unemployed homeowners in Oregon and four other states avoid foreclosure. Oregon, where one in every 76 homes is facing foreclosure, qualifies for $88 million.The money will be used to help distressed homeowners. The money will be available to state housing authorities in Oregon, Ohio, South Carolina, Rhode Island and North Carolina “to support local initiatives to assist struggling homeowners in these five states that have high percentages of their population living in areas of economic distress due to unemployment,” the Treasury Department said…”

Feds OK plan to let hospitals recoup Medicaid expense, By Catherine Candisky, July 15, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Federal regulators have approved a state plan to pay hospitals an additional $87 million this year for the care they provide to low-income Ohioans on Medicaid. The funds will be disbursed to hospitals by the end of this month. The bulk payment and a 5 percent increase in Medicaid reimbursement fees effective in October were included in last year’s state budget to let hospitals recoup some of the money they were losing through a new state franchise fee. The fee is projected to cost hospitals statewide $718 million over the two-year budget ending June 30, 2011. The two provisions aimed at offsetting that expense will let hospitals recoup $569 million, said Tiffany Himmelreich, spokeswoman for the Ohio Hospital Association…”

Poverty rates growing in Ohio, Ky., By Mike Rutledge, July 3, 2010, Cincinnati Enquirer: “Even before the Great Recession started in late 2007, Ohio and Kentucky poverty rates were hitting highs for the decade. Ohio’s poverty level rose above the national average for the first time all decade in 2007 and 2008. In Kentucky, where poverty was 2.6 percentage points above the national average in 2000, that disparity grew to 4.1 points by 2008, according to Enquirer research. But in 2008 - the last time for which poverty estimates are available - Kentucky’s annual unemployment rate was still a low 6.6 percent, while Ohio’s for May was 6.3 percent. A year later, Kentucky’s unemployment rate reached 10.5 percent while Ohio’s seasonally adjusted rate for May was 10.3 percent. The rates have remained at about those 2009 levels in May of this year for both states. Social service agencies believe when 2009 poverty rates are announced this fall, they will be higher than the 2008 levels…”

• State to expand Medicaid coverage to single adults, By Matthew Sturdevant, June 21, 2010, Hartford Courant: “Connecticut will save $53 million in the next year by shifting the cost of medical care for about 45,000 low-income single adults from a state program to federal Medicaid. Connecticut on Monday became the first state in the U.S. to take advantage of federal healthcare reform laws passed in March expanding Medicaid services to low-income single adults who don’t have children…”
• Medicaid expansion to cost Ohioans $1.45 billion, By Catherine Candisky, June 17, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “The sharp Medicaid expansion under the new federal health-care law will cost Ohio taxpayers $1.45 billion from 2014 through 2019, according to projections released to The Dispatch today by the state. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services estimates that Medicaid - which currently insures nearly 2.1 million poor and disabled Ohioans - will grow by 554,000 people beginning in the 2014 fiscal year. Half of the new enrollees are already eligible for coverage but not enrolled and expected to sign up during a renewed marketing effort, state officials say. The cost estimates were the first by the state since President Barack Obama signed the sweeping overhaul into law in March…”
• Colorado delays Medicaid payments, By Jennifer Brown, June 17, 2010, Denver Post: “Temporarily short on money, Colorado has declared a fiscal emergency and delayed payments to doctors and clinics taking care of the state’s neediest patients. Under state law, the Medicaid department can delay reimbursements to doctors, hospitals and clinics during a fiscal emergency. Physicians treating patients with the health-insurance plan for the poor will not receive normally scheduled payments on June 25 or July 2, a hardship for safety-net clinics in particular that rely on public funds. State officials said they would begin catching up on payments July 9 after a new fiscal year begins…”

• Hawaii cuts result in 10% fewer families taking preschool aid, By Mary Vorsino, June 2, 2010, Honolulu Advertiser: “The number of families receiving state subsidies to cover preschool tuition costs has dropped by about 10 percent after the state’s decision to decrease the amount of help families can get, and providers say parents appear to instead be opting for cheaper, unlicensed care or leaving their children with relatives. The subsidies, which cover a portion of childcare costs, are provided on a sliding scale based on income. In certain cases the reduction in subsidies meant parents who were paying $120 a month for one child’s care now have to pay $540. Providers also say they’re expecting more decreases in families getting subsidies, which were cut in February, as programs set up to help residents tackle the new financial stresses of lower subsidies end or run out of money…”
• Fewer parents eligible for child care subsidies, By Meredith Moss, May 29, 2010, Dayton Daily News: “To earn more money to support her family, 22-year-old Clarrissa Moore took on a second job. That decision turned out to be a disastrous one for the Dayton mother and her 3-year-old son, Jaiden. Not only did the extra job put her over the limit for child care help, but it was simply too exhausting. By the time she resigned, and then reapplied for the child care subsidies she needed, she was turned down. The state income requirements had changed and Moore was no longer eligible. Moore is just one example of Ohioans being impacted by state budget cuts that took effect in July 2009…”

State, patients, doctors like new Medicaid drug plan, By Catherine Candisky, April 14, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “When the state took back control of Medicaid’s prescription-drug program last year, there was a lot of talk about how the move would save millions. It has. But it’s also making it easier for patients to get the medications they need. An analysis by the Ohio Coalition for Patient Rights found that Medicaid patients have improved access to ‘quality and appropriate’ treatments and medications…”

• As demand for state aid grows, counties’ human services toil, By Allison Sherry, March 29, 2010, Denver Post: “Cindy Flores cupped her face in her hands and started talking about her problems to the one person required to listen. Her sister had been helping her buy food, and she was running low. She had an eviction notice in her purse. Child care would be helpful as she looks for work. Adams County Human Services worker Alicia Mascarenas met Flores’ eyes and then shifted her attention to the computer screen. ‘So you don’t have a job now?’ she said. Flores shook her head and looked at the floor. ‘My company went bankrupt,’ she said. As Colorado nears 17 straight months of year-over-year job losses, county human services workers continue to cope with growing caseloads - and the hard tales that accompany each one. In most metro area counties, and even some rural ones, workers have caseloads of more than 500 people. Statewide, food-stamp cases jumped to 173,361 in February from almost 165,000 in November. Those on Medicaid jumped to 501,000 from 487,000 between October and February…”
• Report: Pantries, soup kitchens faced hunger spike in 2009, By Catherine Candisky, March 31, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “If you gathered everyone in the state who got help at a soup kitchen or food pantry in any given week last year, they would fill Ohio Stadium more than twice. Every week in 2009, 225,700 Ohioans sought emergency food assistance, a jump of 18 percent from three years earlier. A report released yesterday by the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks shows the recession’s devastating impact on Ohio families. In all, more than 1.4 million people statewide received food assistance at least once last year, and often more frequently. The spike seems to be attributed to those seeking help for the first time, usually after losing a job and running through any money they might have set aside…”

Broken fixes: Inspectors find shoddy work in weatherization program, By Doug Caruso, March 14, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “When low-income Ohioans receive help to improve their insulation and furnace, the quality of the work - including the potential for deadly mistakes - appears to depend on where they live. State records show that 12 of the 58 nonprofit agencies in Ohio’s Home Weatherization Assistance Program passed all of their state inspections in the past three years. That includes two of the agencies that serve Franklin County: the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and Ground Level Solutions. But 20 other agencies failed more than half of their state inspections, and five of those failed all of them. And that’s just among the houses that were inspected. Federal rules call for examining the work in one of every 20 houses. Overall, nearly 40 percent of the houses that state inspectors checked failed…”

Ohio joining push to insure kids, By Catherine Candisky, March 12, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Two of three uninsured kids in Ohio - 77,000 youngsters - don’t have to go without health care. Their modest family incomes qualify them for tax-funded coverage, but they aren’t enrolled. Ohio will become the first state to join a challenge by the Obama administration to eliminate the ranks of so-called uninsured eligibles within five years, Gov. Ted Strickland announced yesterday. To meet that goal, Ohio will adopt three initiatives to make it easier for families to enroll in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and keep them covered longer…”

• Study: 1 in 5 kids don’t see dentist each year, By Alison Young, February 23, 2010,USA Today: “At least one in five U.S. children go without annual dental care and most states lack key policies to ensure access to cost-saving preventive treatments, according to a study released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States. Six states received an “A” grade from the non-profit policy analysis group for their dental health policies. But even children in those states have problems accessing care, the report said…”
• Group gives Ohio a B in child dental care, By Misti Crane, February 23, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “It might not be gold-star-worthy, but Ohio’s grade on a national review of state dental policies isn’t bad. With its B, Ohio outscored 35 other states in the Pew Center on the States’ review of policies that improve children’s access to dentists. The state won special attention for its efforts to provide dental sealants, which prevent cavities. All states have room for improvement, according to the report, which highlights the importance of preventive care to drive down the incidence and cost of more expensive treatments later. The report estimates that 17 million children, or one in five, go without the dental care they need every year…”
• Study: Minnesota lags in providing dental care to disadvantaged kids, By Lorna Benson, February 23, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “A national study says Minnesota needs to do more to help disadvantaged kids access dental care. The state received a ‘C’ grade on its dental policies from the Pew Center on the States. Pew measured the performance of all 50 states and the District of Columbia on whether they are abiding by eight well-established policy solutions that enhance children’s access to dental care. The policies include preventative dental care services covered by the Medicaid program, fluoridated public water supplies and establishing a new category of dental provider to compensate for dentist shortages. Shelly Gehshan, director of the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign, said Minnesota only met four of the eight policy measurements…”

• Judging stimulus by job data reveals success, By David Leonhardt, February 16, 2010, New York Times: “Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked. Let’s say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let’s also imagine it was large enough to have had a huge impact on jobs - employing something like two million people who would otherwise be unemployed right now. If that had happened, what would the economy look like today? Well, it would look almost exactly as it does now. Because those nice descriptions of the stimulus that I just gave aren’t hypothetical. They are descriptions of the actual bill. Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative…”
• Independent analysis says federal stimulus brought $2 billion to Wisconsin, By Matthew DeFour, February 17, 2010, Wisconsin State Journal: “In the last year, the federal Recovery Act has infused $2 billion - or about $369 per person - into the pockets of Wisconsin citizens, including $155 million in Dane County, according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, a independent nonprofit advocacy group. UW-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky said the $800 billion stimulus may not have created jobs as swiftly as expected, but it has helped buoy the economy, as well as state and local budgets…”
• Was stimulus good for Ohio?, By Mark Niquette and Doug Caruso, February 17, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “One year after Congress passed what was intended to be a $787 billion jolt to a reeling economy, at least $2.8 billion has been spent in Ohio so far to preserve jobs and state services, build roads and accomplish a wide range of other purposes. But as Congress considers a second jobs bill, debate still rages about what this stimulus package is accomplishing. Critics question how the money is being spent at a time of growing federal deficits. They also point out that unemployment has gotten worse since the bill was passed one year ago today. According to federal statistics, Ohio has lost a net 107,800 jobs since last February, and the state’s jobless rate rose from 9.5 percent to 10.9 percent during that time…”

Hard times tighten vise on the poor; U.S. ranks Toledo as nation’s 8th-most impoverished, By Tom Henry, February 14, 2010, Toledo Blade: “One in four. What does it mean? Every dollar has four quarters. So does every football game. Every gallon of milk and every gallon of gasoline has four quarts. But try to explain what it means to live in a city such as Toledo, where one of every four people now lives below the poverty line. There is no tidy way to package and deliver the answer. The latest U.S. Census Bureau poverty statistics rank Toledo the nation’s eighth most impoverished city, with 24.7 percent of its residents living below the poverty line. That’s nearly twice the national poverty rate of 13.2 percent. Many believe the situation is worse now locally and nationally, given that those Census figures were based on late 2008 data. America’s economic crisis worsened during the first half of 2009…”

• 1.5 million Ohioans are living in poverty, By Catherine Candisky, January 23, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “The economic tsunami has left its mark on Ohio. The annual State of Poverty in Ohio report — unveiled four days before Gov. Ted Strickland’s State of the State speech on Tuesday — is packed with sobering statistics. But this may be the most alarming: Since 2002, the state’s population has increased by 1.2 percent while the number of people living in poverty has grown by 41.7 percent. Ohio is now home to 1.5 million people — 13.7 percent of its population — living below the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s a household income of $22,050 or less a year. Nearly a third of Ohioans, 3.4 million people, had incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level, a level widely accepted as needed to cover housing, food and other necessities. The report by Columbus-based Community Research Partners documents what many now know firsthand…”
• Numbers show depth of Ohio’s economic despair, By Jessica Alaimo, January 23, 2010, Lancaster Eagle Gazette: “President Barack Obama and state leaders could be forgiven if they thought a presidential visit to Ohio occurred on Friday the 13th, not the 22nd. More bad news about the state’s economy preceded Obama’s visit to Lorain, where he promised, ‘I won’t stop fighting to bring back jobs here.’
  • Ohio’s unemployment rate rose to 10.9 percent in December, the latest figures from the Department of Job and Family Services. The jobless rate was 10.6 percent in November, and the department blamed losses in service industries for the decline.
  • A new report from the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies said 14 percent of Ohioans were living in poverty in 2008. Considering the number of Ohioans out of work has risen by 196,000 in the past year, the current poverty rate is almost certainly worse.
  • Ohio’s unemployment compensation fund is $1.8 billion in the red, a watchdog reporting group revealed, and employers could see big hikes in insurance premiums if the state doesn’t start repaying its loans in two years. Recipients also could see their benefits cut…”

Poverty soars in Ohio, By Catherine Candisky, January 22, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Rising unemployment and sinking wages have pushed record numbers of Ohioans into poverty. The State of Poverty in Ohio — unveiled four days before Gov. Ted Strickland’s official State of the State speech — was released today by the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies. It provides some startling statistics and reveals what many Ohioans know firsthand. Simply put, things have gotten worse. Since 2002, the state’s population has increased by 1.2 percent while the number of persons living in poverty has grown by 41.7 percent…”

• 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…”

Moms, children stay locked up together in Ohio, By Sharon Coolidge and Eileen Kelley, November 13, 2009, Cincinnati Enquirer: “The only thing missing from tiny Takeem Maffett’s world are black and white prison stripes. On the campus of the Ohio Reformatory for Women, convicts shuffle across from one spot to the next under watchful eyes. Takeem’s mother Takaya Patterson is exempt. In contrast to the other buildings at the sprawling complex surrounded by razor wire and blinding lights, the nursery is colorful and dotted with Sesame Street characters. Takeem’s mother wears a prison jumpsuit. Takeem, with cherub cheeks and long slender fingers, sleeps in her arms as she rocks. Just 2 months old, Takeem lives in prison. Under an unusual program, the state of Ohio lets Patterson raise him behind prison walls…”

• Governor lobbies for Medicaid expansion, By Michelle Saxton, October 6, 2009, Charleston Daily Mail: “A proposed expansion of Medicaid has some governors voicing concern about how states will afford greater coverage in a challenging economy, but Gov. Joe Manchin argues that an expansion focused on prevention will help reduce costs from uncompensated care. ‘You have to expand that to get people more involved in the system,’ Manchin said Monday. ‘We’re paying for them now anyway. People will wait and go to the emergency room when they get deathly ill or seriously ill at the highest cost,’ he said. ‘But if you get them into more of a managed type of care, showing them how to take action on the preventive side, you can really cut down the costs on the most expensive side. That’s the debate that’s going on…’”
• Expansion of Medicaid could impose costs on Ohio, By Jack Torry and Jonathan Riskind, October 7, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: “As Ohio officials try to close an $850 million budget hole, the key U.S. Senate health-care overhaul package could cost Ohio $922 million in additional Medicaid spending in the plan’s first five years. The health-care bill, which is expected to win the Senate Finance Committee’s approval this week, would add nearly 800,000 Ohio residents to the state’s Medicaid roll. The bill would do so by allowing a family of four with an annual income of up to $29,300 to be eligible for Medicaid coverage instead of the current limit of $22,050 for such a family…”
• Levine: Health bill hurts Medicaid, By Gerard Shields, October 7, 2009, Baton Rouge Advocate: “Louisiana’s top health official is criticizing a provision in the U.S. Senate’s health-care bill that would give four states, including that of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, full federal funding for increases in the Medicaid rolls. Louisiana would have to pay a 5 percent match for any new federal money for expansion of Medicaid amounting to $614 million over five years, said Alan Levine, secretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals. ‘The cost to Nevada?’ Levine said. ‘Zero.’ The news of the provision comes at a time when Louisiana is struggling to get control of its Medicaid budget…”

• 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. ..”

• Census data show recession-driven changes, By Sam Roberts, September 21, 2009, New York Times: “A smaller share of Americans married, drove to work alone, owned their own home or moved to a new residence last year than the year before. More lived in overcrowded housing. Property values declined. And fewer immigrants arrived, which meant that for the first time since the beginning of the decade, the total number of foreign-born people in the country did not grow. Those were among the findings released Monday in the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, a wealth of data comparing the nation’s profile in 2008 with that of 2007…”
• Census: Recession had sweeping impact on US life, By Hope Yen (AP), September 22, 2009, Washington Post: “A broad survey of Americans has provided striking measures of the recession’s effect on life at home and at work: People are now stuck in traffic longer, less apt to move away and more inclined to put off marriage and buying a house. The U.S. census data, released Monday, also show a dip in the number of foreign-born last year, to under 38 million after it reached an all-time high in 2007. This was due to declines in low-skilled workers from Mexico searching for jobs in Arizona, Florida and California…”
• 2008 Census data: Housing is getting even less affordable, By Stephanie Armour and Barbara Hansen, September 21, 2009, USA Today: “More Americans found housing unaffordable last year, even though home prices across the U.S. have taken a major fall. More than 40 million spent 30% or more of their household income on housing costs, 600,000 more than in 2007, according to 2008 Census data released Monday. That includes homeowners with and without mortgages, as well as renters. The number of renters increased, while the number of homeowners declined…”
• NE Ohio residents are poorer today than decade ago, census data shows, By Robert L. Smith, September 22, 2009, Cleveland Plain Dealer: ” If you feel poorer than yesteryear, well, you probably are. The typical family in Ohio saw its income drop sharply this decade, and Northeast Ohio families lost more than most. Even before the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, household incomes were in steady decline across the state and region, a Plain Dealer review of census data reveals. By the summer of 2008, the median household income in Ohio had plunged by 9 percent in the new millennium, more than double the national rate of decline…”
• Census report shows recession hammers Michigan, By John Flesher (AP), September 21, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Michigan’s already dire economic plight only worsened as the recession kicked in, with incomes and home values plunging while fewer people had health insurance coverage, according to new U.S. census data. The report, for release on Tuesday, offers little hope for a quick turnaround in the state, even if the nationwide situation improves over the next year as some economists predict, demographic experts said…”

Budget victims, By Rita Price, August 28, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: At age 3, the boy’s development was so delayed that teachers had to use materials designed for 12- to 24-month-olds to assess his abilities. The staff at the South Side Learning and Development Center on Reeb Avenue worked closely with the child for 10 months to get him caught up. Now, teachers can only wonder how he spends his days. The loss of the state Early Learning Initiative program is a gut punch to centers such as South Side, where enrollment recently plummeted from 86 to 36 boys and girls…”

• State budget cuts force cuts in child care, By Tiffany Aumann, August 21, 2009, Newark Advocate: “Some local child care centers are reducing staff hours and benefits and looking at possibly cutting part-time care programs as the result of cuts to state child care subsidies that will go into effect Sunday. ‘It has a lot of directors and day cares scrambling to figure out how to make ends meet,’ said Margaret Riggs, director of Southtowne Kids Care in Heath. ‘We’re watching and cutting where we can and just hope we stay full (enrollment)…’”
• Child care centers are in ‘dire straits’, By James McGinnis, August 20, 2009, Buck County Courier Times: “Each year, Pennsylvania state government provides subsidies for an estimated 235,000 children from low-income families. Child care programs for low-income families in Bucks County could be shut down next month due to the inability of state lawmakers to pass a budget. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare said it has no money to distribute. And subsidies for day care centers have stopped…”

Jobless rate captures only part of pain, By Mark Niquette, August 21, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: “Considering the number of people she knows personally who are out of work, Amy Drake had suspected that the unemployment rate reported in recent months was too low. “It seemed like, statistically, it should be higher than what we hear in the news,” said Drake, 44, whose Columbus job in information-technology communications was eliminated in March. That’s why it was both illuminating and disturbing for Drake to learn that the unemployment rate, widely used as a key economic indicator and political weapon, wouldn’t include her if she hadn’t looked for a job for a month. Although it’s often assumed that the jobless rate includes all unemployed workers or is based on official claims for unemployment benefits, it actually comes from a monthly survey of about 60,000 households nationwide — and it counts only those who have actively looked for work during the past four weeks…”

• State cuts could impact child-care subsidies, By Tiffany Aumann, July 11, 2009, Newark Advocate: “On Friday, parents and employees at Montessori Community School donned badges that read “I’m at work today because I have child care” and posed for photographs as part of a last-minute campaign to tell Ohio legislators they fear for the future of child-care access and quality under 2009-10 state budget proposals. Child-care advocates think budget cuts being considered could deeply hurt low-income families that receive subsidies, as well as the caregivers who watch the children each day…”
• Enrollment freeze for state’s low-income child care program, Healthy Families, By Lora Hines, July 16, 2009, Press-Enterprise: “Beginning today, California’s health care program for low-income children will freeze enrollment for the first time in its 10-year history because of the state’s ongoing budget crisis.  Healthy Families needs $90 million from the state to cover an estimated 1 million children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medi-Cal and too little to afford insurance, according to California’s Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which operates the program. That gap adds up to $270 million because the federal government kicks in $2 for every $1 the state spends on the program…”
• California’s needy may bear brunt of budget crisis, By Steve Gorman, July 15, 2009, US Daily: An ill-timed pregnancy and domestic abuse left Amanda Garcia facing a dire future last year at the prime of life, until California’s welfare-to-work program enabled her return to college after her baby was born.  Now the state’s budget crisis is clouding her second chance for a college degree and a professional career. Garcia, 19, who aspires to become a police officer and a lawyer, just learned this month that her childcare assistance may be stopped…”