• Private contractors play increasing role in Medicaid, audit finds, By Jason Stein, December 20, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “As the state’s health programs for the poor have ballooned in recent years, the state relied increasingly on private contractors to run its health programs for the poor and completed fewer investigations into potential fraud, a new audit has found. The report released Tuesday by the Legislative Audit Bureau found that as of June there were at least three times as many contract workers working on Medicaid health programs as there were state workers. Over the past four years, payments to private vendors for Medicaid have nearly doubled, the audit found…”
• Utah’s budget debate: transportation and Medicaid, By Kirsten Stewart, December 19, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Unveiling his budget for next year, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert last week bemoaned the growing share flowing to Medicaid. The health insurance program for low-income people consumes 17.6 percent of Utah’s budget, hurting the state’s ability to fund other priorities such as public schools, said Herbert, sounding a theme popular among conservatives. But advocates for the poor say the national strategy of pitting Medicaid against public schools doesn’t reflect reality in Utah. They point to another familiar budget boogeyman: transportation…”

• State drafting a waiver to provide health insurance benefits in exchange for community service, By Wendy Leonard, November 17, 2011, Deseret News: “Community service in exchange for health insurance? It’s an idea that the Utah Department of Health is exploring to allow an otherwise economically challenged population to give back to their community. Based on income, some recipients of the state’s Medicaid health insurance benefit share in the cost by paying modest co-pays and premiums. A pilot program would offer the service option in exchange for health benefits for those who can’t afford to contribute toward cost of Medicaid. But the proposed program would first need approval by federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. UDOH has until the first of the year to submit a waiver to CMS that could change how Medicaid operates in Utah and allow the program…”
• Utahns: Mandated charity work for Medicaid is ‘demeaning’, By Kirsten Stewart, November 17, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Annette Wright minces no words when asked about the prospect of having to do community service for her Medicaid coverage. It’s ‘crazy’ and ‘demeaning,’ because it presumes people on the low-income health care program don’t already give back, said the 54-year-old career actress. ‘Volunteering should come from the heart. It’s something you do because you want to, not because you have to. What they’re doing is more like coercion.’ Such was the prevailing sentiment Thursday at a public hearing on an experiment that, if approved by the federal government, would require fewer than 100 Medicaid recipients to do charity work in exchange for health insurance. The pilot program is meant to build a sense of community, not punish the poor, said its architect, Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland…”

• In western Wisconsin, homelessness moves out to the suburbs, By Andy Rathbun, October 1, 2011, Pioneer Press: “The Conde family never expected to be homeless. The family moved from western Wisconsin to Oregon in June 2009 with hopes that Robert Conde could find more jobs painting and drywalling. The work wasn’t there, and to add to the family’s hardships, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It wasn’t long before they packed their belongings and made a cold January drive back to Wisconsin. ‘Within a month’s time, it was like everything was crashing down on us,’ said Shana Conde, Robert’s wife. ‘We got back with nothing. We had no money, and our vehicles were falling apart.’ The couple and their three young children entered Grace Place, an emergency shelter in Somerset, Wis., where they stayed for five months before spending nearly a year in transitional housing. In western Wisconsin’s Pierce, Polk and St. Croix counties, the number of people staying in emergency shelters has risen 56 percent in four years, according to the Wisconsin Division of Housing, which began formally collecting the data in 2007…”
• Initiative to end chronic homelessness in Utah successful, By Marjorie Cortez, September 29, 2011, Deseret News: “The success of a 10-year initiative to end chronic homelessness could mean the eventual closure of the emergency overflow shelter in Midvale. Last winter, there were excess beds available each night in The Road Home’s downtown emergency shelter, which officials attribute to the success of rapid rehousing programs that place homeless families and individuals into permanent supportive housing. Once they settle into housing, they can begin work on the issues that have contributed to their homelessness. There have been as many as 100 open beds on some nights. Chronic homelessness in Utah has fallen 69 percent since 2006. Since 2010, the number of people considered ‘chronic homeless’ - people who have experienced homelessness once within the past year or have had three episodes of homelessness in four years - has dropped 26 percent, according to the 2011 Comprehensive Report on Homelessness released Wednesday…”

• Legislators: State could save millions if prison officials seek Medicaid funding for inmates, By Sebastian Kitchen, September 19, 2011, Montgomery Advertiser: “Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Alabama, who have not agreed on much in recent months, are questioning why the state prison system is not seeking reimbursement for medical treatment of Medicaid-eligible prisoners — a change they believe could save the state millions during tough economic times. The prison commissioner in Mississippi, Christopher Epps, told the Montgomery Advertiser his state has saved $10 million through the program since implementing it in 2009 and that Mississippi has fewer inmates than Alabama. State legislators have pushed corrections officials and the administrations of Gov. Robert Bentley and former Gov. Bob Riley to adopt the program, in which a vendor qualifies eligible inmates for Medicaid reimbursements…”
• State delays implementation of Medicaid overhaul until Nov. 1, By Beth Musgrave, September 20, 2011, Lexington Herald-Leader: “After hearing concerns from Kentucky hospitals, the state announced this week that it will delay implementing an overhaul of the state’s Medicaid program until Nov. 1. The state announced in July that it was hiring three companies to manage care for 560,000 people on the health insurance program for the poor and disabled. The controversial move is expected to save the state $375 million over the next three years. Managed care was scheduled to begin Oct. 1 in Kentucky…”
• Feds give Utah’s Medicaid overhaul mixed reviews, By Kirsten Stewart, September 19, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah’s plan for reforming Medicaid is getting mixed reviews from the Obama administration. Like many states, Utah is looking to redesign its Medicaid program to contain costs. A blueprint submitted in July for federal approval calls for moving Medicaid patients into managed care networks that would pay providers to keep patients healthy, instead of for more tests and treatment. The meat of the proposal - its payment reforms - has been well received, said Utah Medicaid Director Michael Hales. But officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have indicated they don’t support a controversial provision that would impose higher co-payments and deductibles on pregnant women and children enrolled in the low-income insurance program…”

• Medicaid change delayed, By Dale Wetzel (AP), September 16, 2011, Jamestown Sun: “A chronically delayed new computer software system to handle North Dakota’s Medicaid bills, which was to be finished in nine months, will not be working until mid-2013, an executive told state legislators Thursday. The project was originally scheduled to be finished two years ago. Last summer, a vice president for the software’s developer, Affiliated Computer Services Inc., promised it would be functioning by June 2012. ACS is a unit of Xerox Corp…”
• Utah explores extending Medicaid to inmates, By Kirsten Stewart, September 15, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah health officials are exploring expanding the state’s Medicaid program to cover inmates’ hospital stays and doctors’ office visits. Inmates have traditionally been barred from the state-federal health insurance program, which caters to the poor and disabled. Currently, the Department of Corrections contracts directly with the University of Utah’s hospital and clinics for procedures that cannot be handled at the prison infirmary, and the state picks up the tab. Moving inmates onto Medicaid would shift most of the funding burden onto the federal government, explained state Medicaid director Michael Hales on Thursday at an advisory board meeting. In the past, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been loathe to shoulder what has long been a state obligation, said Hales. But the agency has recently signaled a willingness to bend the rules…”
• Calif. Medicaid expansion: A lifeline for ex-convicts, By Sarah Varney, September 13, 2011, National Public Radio: “California has embarked on an ambitious expansion of its Medicaid program, three years ahead of the federal expansion that the health law requires in 2014. At least half a million people are expected to gain coverage - mostly poor adults who never qualified under the old rules because they didn’t have kids at home. Among those who stand to benefit right now are ex-offenders. Inmates often leave California prisons with no consistent place to get medical care. But that’s changing…”

• Unemployment, foreclosures drive more Utah families into poverty, By Brooke Adams, August 17, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune.
• Kids hit hard in recent economic downturn, By Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, August 17, 2011, Contra Costa Times.
• Arizona kids worse than most in poverty, health, foreclosure, By Mary K. Reinhart, August 17, 2011, Arizona Republic.
• Report: Wyoming children fared OK in recession, By Jackie Borchardt, August 16, 2011, Billings Gazette.
• Report: Economy taking toll on Colorado kids, By Barbara Cotter, August 16, 2011, Colorado Springs Gazette.
• Oregon third-worst for percentage of children with unemployed parents, By Richard Read, August 17, 2011, The Oregonian.
• Montana ranks worst in 5-state area for child health, By Charles S. Johnson, August 17, 2011, Billings Gazette.

• Utah leaders pushing feds for quick approval for state Medicaid waiver, By Wendy Leonard, July 24, 2011, Deseret News: “State government officials signed a letter last week addressed to federal officials, hoping to push their Medicaid waiver request along in a ‘timely fashion.’ The original waiver, which seeks flexibility in reforming the system locally, among other changes to Medicaid, was submitted to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on July 1. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said the state’s plan ‘makes sense,’ is ‘innovative and homegrown,’ and is the result of much collaboration from stakeholders…”
• Jindal administration announces firms for Medicaid privatization, By Bill Barrow, July 25, 2011, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “The state health department today identified five companies to run a $2.2 billion privatization of the Louisiana Medicaid insurance program for low-income children and adults. The firms still must clear additional rounds of government evaluation, including by the federal agency responsible for the Medicaid program, before Medicaid recipients can join the new managed-care networks later this year. But the announcement is a key juncture for Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signature health-care initiative. The program would shift more than two-thirds of the state’s 1.2 million Medicaid recipients - most of them children - to a system of coordinated-care networks designed to save taxpayer money and provide better care through coordination among doctors, hospitals and other medical professionals. Medicaid currently operates on a traditional fee-for-service model, with a recipient choosing any physician or other provider who accept the program and the provider billing the state after delivering a service…”

• State proposes increases in Medicaid co-pays, By Misty Williams, July 14, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Children could be among the hardest hit by proposed increases in co-pays for Medicaid enrollees and the creation of co-pays for families in the state’s PeachCare for Kids health care program starting this fall. A plan to double existing co-pays for inpatient hospital services to $25 is also among the changes proposed by the Georgia Department of Community Health that would save the state an estimated $4.2 million. Co-pays for prescription drugs, vision care and other services would also climb under the plan outlined at a department board meeting Thursday. Children ages 6 and older enrolled in PeachCare would be the most dramatically affected by the changes, which would take effect Sept. 1, since those families don’t currently have co-pays, said Jerry Dubberly, the state’s Medicaid division chief. PeachCare provides health care to more than 200,000 children through age 18 who don’t qualify for Medicaid and have family incomes up to 235 percent of the federal poverty level…”
• Fewer Utah doctors to treat Medicaid patients, By Kirsten Stewart, July 10, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “When people ask family practitioner Ray Ward if he does charity care, he likes to joke, ‘Yes, I take Medicaid.’ It means making less money, but the Bountiful doctor does it out of a sense of duty. ‘I still come out OK at the end of the year,’ he says. ‘So far, I haven’t had to turn anyone away. I still accept [Medicaid] patients.’ Physicians like Ward, however, are in increasingly short supply. In Utah the number of doctors who accept Medicaid has shrunk 25 percent in 11 years. This year, 3,166 doctors are certified to bill the low-income health program, down from 4,210 in 2000. That’s just over half of the state’s 5,844 practicing physicians. Meanwhile, Medicaid enrollment, now at about 244,470, is swelling with no immediate end in sight…”

Utah: ‘Not even close’ to closing the poverty gap, By Sara Lenz, June 17, 2011, Deseret News: “April Hadley remembers the day she took her oldest daughter Amelia, now 8, to kindergarten at Club Heights Elementary. Her daughter’s teacher commented that it was nice to have a student who came from a two-parent home in her class. ‘It broke my heart,’ Hadley recalled. Over the last few years, the parent of four has questioned her decision to send her children to a school with that dynamic. Eighty percent of the students there qualify for free or reduced lunch, a measure of poverty, and about one in four students at Club Heights is considered a limited English speaker. Many of Hadley’s neighbors have chosen to send their kids to a charter school or another public school. The reason - high poverty schools with a high minority population often don’t perform as well as low poverty schools, and Utah schools are no exception…”

• Florida governor signs historic Medicaid bill, By Kelli Kennedy (AP), June 2, 2011, Miami Herald: “Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed two historic Medicaid bills Thursday, placing the health care of nearly 3 million Florida residents into the hands of for-profit companies and hospital networks. Lawmakers said the program was overwhelming the state budget and needed to be privatized to rein in costs and improve patient care. Critics fear the bills build on a flawed five-county experiment where patients struggled to access specialists and doctors complained the treatments they prescribed were frequently denied. State Sen. Joe Negron, who spearheaded the overhaul, said leaders have learned from the pilot program’s shortcomings and it now includes increased oversight and more stringent penalties, including fining providers up to $500,000 if they drop out. The measures also increase doctors’ reimbursement rates and limits malpractice lawsuits for Medicaid patients in hopes of increasing doctor participation in the program. The bills (HB 7107 and HB 7109) also require providers to generate a 5 percent savings the first year, which could save the state about $1 billion…”
• Medicaid managed care expands in California as State adds 1 million seniors and disabled, By Christopher Weaver, June 1, 2011, Kaiser Health News: “More than one million of California’s older and disabled population will receive a birthday gift this year that they may not have asked for: membership in a state-sponsored managed-care plan. They’re now covered by Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor that is called Medi-Cal in California. Starting this month, California is requiring them to join a state-paid Medicaid managed-care plan, which will coordinate their services and direct them to particular doctors and hospitals. Each person affected by the change must enroll by the end of the month in which their birthday falls. This abrupt change in policy reflects a broadening consensus in the state that managed care – which in California is offered both by for-profit health plans and local, public plans – is more efficient, both for patients and the state…”
• Utah unveils ambitious overhaul of Medicaid, By Kirsten Stewart, June 1, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah health officials on Wednesday unveiled a 91-page blueprint for overhauling the state’s Medicaid program, billing it as way to preserve the low-income health safety net. The plan envisions steering Medicaid patients into managed care networks, or Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which would be paid lump monthly sums per patient. If an ACO spends more than allotted for care and prescription drugs, it absorbs the loss. If it spends less, it gets a share of the leftovers — similar to old HMOs of the ’90s. HMOs were accused of cutting costs by denying care, often pitting insurers against doctors. But in ACOs, doctors will work with their patients, ordering treatments under strong incentives to improve care and cut costs, said the plan’s architect, Sen. Dan Liljenquist, R-Bountiful. The current fee-for-service model of paying doctors and hospitals directly is a ‘free pass,’ said Liljenquist, and encourages providers to do more tests and conduct more procedures than necessary. ‘That expense is overwhelming us,’ he said…”

• Number of homeless in Utah keeps dropping, By Patty Henetz, May 11, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah’s homeless population shrank by 8.2 percent between January 2010 and this January, Lt. Gov. Greg Bell and other state officials announced Wednesday. The number of chronically homeless, defined as those who have been homeless for more than a year, dropped by 26 percent. Bell attributed the drop to Utah’s Housing First Initiative, a collaboration between government, nonprofit and private agencies that has built hundreds of units in permanent supportive communities since 2005 and is planning still more…”
• Chronic homelessness continues on a downward trend in Utah, By Wendy Leonard, May 12, 2011, Deseret News: “Chronic homelessness in Utah is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Numbers are down for the sixth straight year as the state’s Housing First initiative continues to prove itself. ‘What is surprising to me is that people are willing to give up the freedom of the streets,’ Pamela Atkinson, an well-known advocate for the homeless in Utah, said Wednesday. For years, homeless people were offered treatment for whatever ailed them and caused them to be without a home, ‘but now we know they need housing first,’ she said…”

Poverty takes toll on Utah kids, By Kirsten Stewart, March 31, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “If the well-being of Utah’s kids is a measure of the state’s overall fitness, then the 2011 ‘Kids Count’ shows the heavy toll of the recession. For 16 years, Voices for Utah Children has collected data on kids - from infant mortality to teen birth rates - as part of research sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. Year after year, the numbers show Utah generally does well by its kids. The past two years were no different, except for a marked increase in poverty, said Terry Haven, the project’s director in Utah. Unemployment in families has grown, as has their use of food stamps and the number of students on free or reduced-price lunches…”

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

Utah foster care placements up 38% in past decade, legislative audit finds, By Marjorie Cortez, January 19, 2011, Deseret News: “The fallout of the 1993 federal lawsuit that challenged Utah’s child welfare practices may be a 38 percent increase in children being placed in foster care, a new legislative audit suggests. ‘Others believe the David C. vs. Leavitt lawsuit has made DCFS (the Division of Child and Family Services) and court staff risk averse and led them to protect children in foster care more than in-home,’ according to a performance audit of the Division of Child and Family Services released Tuesday. DCFS has operated under a court-appointed monitor for more than a decade under the lawsuit. Federal oversight ended in 2007. During the past decade, foster care placements in Utah have increased by 38 percent while the number of families that receive in-home supports that allow children to stay in their family homes has decreased by 40 percent, the audit by Legislative Auditor General shows…”

• Chronic homelessness down 42 percent, new Utah report says, By Marjorie Cortez, October 13, 2010, Deseret News: “Utah has experienced a 42 percent downturn in chronic homelessness from the previous year, a new report shows. Researchers and human services providers attribute the decline to a 10-year initiative that places the homeless in housing sooner and connects them to an array of services and case management to deal with issues that contribute to homelessness…”
• Number of homeless Utah kids skyrockets, By Julia Lyon, October 14, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “The lingering recession has taken a toll on Utah’s youngest residents, leading to a 48 percent increase in the number of homeless school-age children since 2008, according to state data released Wednesday. Nearly 12,000 children were homeless in January 2010, meaning their families had lost their homes and were typically staying with friends or relatives, officials said at the annual Homeless Summit in downtown Salt Lake City. In the Salt Lake City School District this fall, one girl was staying with friends after her mother was deported. Another teenager stayed with relatives, finishing high school in Utah after his family left the state for work in Montana. Statewide, the numbers of homeless children jumped from 8,016 in 2008 to 10,388 in 2009 and 11,883 in 2010…”
• D.C. still lacks enough shelter for homeless families, By Nathan Rott, October 13, 2010, Washington Post: “With cold weather just weeks away, the District has shelved a plan to expand its already packed shelter for homeless families at the former D.C. General Hospital, a decision that advocates fear could leave vulnerable families even worse off than last winter. A month after pledging to do a better job of sheltering the city’s homeless this winter, District leaders haven’t figured out how best to meet that promise. Meanwhile, the Family Emergency Shelter, which can house 135 families, is nearly full. And last week, 67 more families were waiting for emergency housing, with no place else to go, according to Omega Butler, chief of operations at the Virginia Williams Resource Center, which helps find housing for homeless families…”
• R.I. homeless shelters to reach record number of visits in 2010, By Chris Barrett, October 14, 2010, Providence Business News: “Visits to homeless shelters will reach record levels in 2010, the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless predicted Thursday. The advocacy group expects 4,340 people will visit shelters by the Dec. 31, the highest number since records started 25 years ago. Last year, 3,371 people visited shelters…”

• Georgia Work$ expands, By Christine Vestal, September 20, 2010, Stateline.org: “When Augusta Roosa lost her accounting job at a restaurant on Jekyll Island, Georgia, she figured it would be just a matter of time before she landed another job in her line of work. But after six months of looking, she decided to go for a long shot. ‘I knew the back of the restaurant so I figured ‘why not learn the front?” says 29-year-old Roosa. The trick was getting a local restaurant owner to give her a chance to prove she could learn everything she needed to know on the job. That’s where a nationally recognized program called Georgia Work$ came in. Started in 2003, it allows jobless workers to become trainees for selected businesses at no cost to the employers. Starting today (Sept. 20), Georgia is more than doubling the number of people who can benefit from the program by opening it up to anyone without a job, not just those collecting unemployment checks, as originally designed…”
• Utah incentive helps put people ‘Back to Work’, By Mike Gorrell, September 20, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “Javier Mendez married Marquita Luker on Aug. 18, so it was not a good time for him to be out of work. But he was, laid off a couple of months earlier from a gritty job removing asbestos from older buildings. So the 32-year-old Taylorsville man was eager to take advantage of a new Utah Department of Workforce Services program that offers companies an incentive - worth up to $2,000 - to hire people receiving unemployment insurance benefits. ‘That’s like a gimme,’ Mendez said last week while working among a crisscrossing grid of pipes running in and out of a chiller unit at the $20.5 million JL Sorenson Recreation Center being built in Herriman by Layton Construction. His new company, Thermal West, is one of the first to participate in the state agency’s ‘Back to Work’ program, which began in July. The department has received enough federal funding through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program to find work for up to 2,500 recipients of unemployment insurance benefits and 700 out-of-work youth. How? By offering companies the $2,000 subsidy if they hire someone off the active unemployment rolls and put them to work for three months, at a guaranteed minimum wage of $9 an hour…”

Utah’s jobless trust fund is about to go broke, By Tony Semerad, June 20, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “Devastated by the recession, Utah’s trust fund for paying jobless benefits is now expected to go broke. The unemployment trust fund, which just two years ago held $855 million, continues to drain rapidly as record numbers of out-of-work Utahns draw weekly benefits. At current rates, state analysts are estimating the fund will run out of money as early as fall of 2011. ‘We are projecting that we will go insolvent,’ Kristen Cox, executive director of the Utah Department of Workforce Services, recently told officials who set trust fund policy. The fund holds about $384 million now, and is replenished by an average of about $140 million a year in premiums paid by employers. That balance ranks as the fifth healthiest among the states, dozens of which have seen their trust funds wiped out since 2008…”

Youth struggle to succeed after foster care, studies show, By Brooke Adams, May 5, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “Until she entered foster care, Bianca Flores was too busy tending her three younger siblings to attend school. Her mother was either sick or MIA, gone for nearly a week at a time. There was no dad — never had been. So Flores filled in as best she could, putting her own life on hold. But since January 2009, Flores has powered through three years of high school credits, and this spring she will do what seemed unimaginable a year ago: Flores, 18, will graduate from high school, the second person in her family to do so. Next up is an even bigger challenge — at the end of August, Flores will exit the state’s foster care system and become a student at Snow College, where she plans to pursue a degree in graphic design. If Flores succeeds, she will be defying the odds. Numerous studies, both here and in other parts of the country, have highlighted the struggles of youth who age out of foster care, finding they are more likely to be homeless, unemployed, under-educated and in jail. One report released this month found nearly 60 percent of young men had been convicted of a crime, compared with 10 percent of young men who had never been in foster care. For women, three-quarters were on public assistance by age 24…”

Jobless in Utah: More Utahns out of work longer, By Mike Gorrell, May 3, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “After 10 months out of work, Alleyn Kinney felt completely prepared for a recent job interview, eager to become a state driver license examiner. Amid faint signs of an economic rebound, he had updated his résumé. He had developed his job-seeking and interviewing skills as an enthusiastic participant in a series of Utah Department of Workforce Services workshops. He had prayed to God with all his heart and soul. But two weeks ago, Kinney, 64, didn’t get the job. ‘I’m bummed right now, but I’m not discouraged,’ he said after receiving a rejection note from the Utah Department of Public Safety. ‘I’ll never give up.’ Kinney’s agonizing experience is not that unusual in this painfully deep downturn, which is creating a chronic joblessness unseen in other recent recessions. Impacts might resonate for years…”

• 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…”

Budget cuts restrict medical care for poor, By Julia Lyon, March 3, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “One year after an emergency room doctor noticed a disturbing spot on Deborah Davis’ kidney, the recovering alcoholic who has been homeless for years is finally trying to find out if she has cancer. But if she needs a kidney removed, she may be one year too late to get help from Utah. This January, the state stopped enrolling poor, disabled clients for short-term monthly cash payments known as General Assistance, intended to keep them afloat until they receive federal disability benefits. Being enrolled in GA also allowed people to apply for state money for one-time medical procedures. Fixing a hernia or carpal tunnel syndrome — more typical procedures than Davis’ kidney surgery — allows a recipient to go back to work, stop relying on public benefits and prevent a long-term disability. Fewer and fewer Utahns have access to that support. In the past few years, state budget cuts reduced GA by millions of dollars and shortened the amount of time clients receive aid, resulting in hundreds of people losing benefits…”

Officials wary as more state jobless funds go broke, By Tony Semerad, February 1, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “Policymakers are growing wary as Utah finds itself in an ever-shrinking group of states whose unemployment insurance trust funds haven’t gone broke yet. Last week, Colorado and New Hampshire became the latest of 26 states to declare their trust funds wiped out by the recession’s surge in jobless claims. Industry watchers predict as many as 40 states will run out of money for unemployment benefits before the economy rebounds. Insolvent states are being forced to borrow from the federal government, raise taxes or cut benefits to keep unemployment aid flowing. Borrowing states now owe the feds almost $30 billion and face cutting benefits further and increasing premiums on employers when the loans come due…”

• Doctors fear health overhaul may backfire for poor on Medi-Cal, By Rob Hotakainen, January 16, 2010, Sacramento Bee: “Paul Phinney is happy to be working as a pediatrician in Sacramento these days, with a historic health care bill on the horizon. For starters, he says it’ll be easier to treat patients if Congress makes it illegal for insurance companies to deny treatment for pre-existing conditions. And he says it would be good if those companies could no longer place a cap on how much they’ll pay for medical services. ‘It’s a very exciting time to be part of medicine,’ he said. But he and many other California doctors worry that the soon-to-be-finalized health care bill could backfire and actually make things worse, making it more difficult for the poor to find doctors and sending more of them to emergency rooms. They say that will happen if Congress does not increase reimbursement rates for doctors who treat patients under the state’s Medicaid program…”
• Feds reject Utah’s low Medicaid pay for dentists, By Lisa Rosetta, January 13, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “A federal agency has rejected the low pay that Utah allots to dental providers who see Medicaid patients because the rates are too low to guarantee pregnant women and children’s access to services. Last session, state lawmakers took back a one-time 24 percent jump in pay that dentists received in 2008, on top of rolling back their 4.5 percent cost of living raise. Dentists said they couldn’t keep their doors open if they saw Medicaid patients at the lower rate. Some limited the number of Medicaid patients they accept; others stopped seeing them or threatened to do so if the Legislature didn’t take action…”

• Bill aims to help borrowers break cycle, By Cathy McKitrick, January 8, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “At his own insurance agency, Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, got a first-hand look at the tactics some payday lenders use to attempt to collect debts at a borrower’s workplace. ‘It got my attention,’ Dunnigan said of the multiple calls to one of his employees — even after Dunnigan had asked them to stop. The lawmaker crafted HB15 to restrict that practice and also to extend a hand to folks who are drowning in debt. His bill, backed by the Legislature’s Business and Labor Committee, would limit loan rollovers to 10 weeks instead of 12. It also would allow borrowers to request extended payment plans to get a handle on their debt. Supporters of the effort, including an industry association, praise HB15 as what could be a significant improvement over current law. But critics denounce it as window dressing…”
• Poor fall victim to loan sharks over Christmas spending, January 15, 2010, BBC News: “Some of the UK’s poorest people are starting the new year in severe debt after borrowing from loan sharks to pay for Christmas, a report has said. The Financial Inclusion Centre said 100,000 families had borrowed a total of £29m from illegal moneylenders. The think tank said on average it would take a year to pay the money back as lenders recouped three times the value, with some interest rates up to 1,500%. The average amount borrowed was £288, but the average repayment was £820…”

Food sales tax could be completely reinstated, By Arthur Raymond, October 9, 2009, Deseret News: “It may be coming back. A state sales tax on food that’s been incrementally decreased for the past two years - and widely viewed as one that unfairly targets low-income families - could be under consideration for a complete reinstatement in the face of ongoing, large-scale revenue losses. Members of the Utah Tax Review Commission heard testimony Thursday from advocates of the disadvantaged, grocery industry representatives, tax watchdogs and a state legislator who sponsored a failed attempt at increasing the food tax last session. This time, however, the idea may find some traction under the cloud of an upcoming state budget shortfall currently being estimated at $700 million…”

Utah’s Medicaid wants a big boost, By Lisa Rosetta, September 28, 2009, Salt Lake Tribune: “With its enrollment fast approaching 200,000 Utahns — an all-time high — the state’s Medicaid program is poised to ask the Legislature for $17 million in additional funding to keep it afloat through fiscal 2010. But it’s a request that may fall on unsympathetic ears. Alarmed by an audit that said Medicaid’s Bureau of Program Integrity could save as much as $20 million if it more scrupulously examined bills and claims for services, House Speaker Dave Clark said the public health insurance program is going to have to find those savings and plug its own funding hole…”

Employers: No more break for Utah’s jobless seniors, By Tony Semerad, September 8, 2009, Salt Lake Tribune: “A political clash is brewing over a clause in Utah law that has big implications for the state’s growing population of jobless senior citizens. For the past five years, working Utahns over age 65 laid off through no fault of their own have been able to collect some unemployment benefits in addition to their Social Security retirement checks. But the law is set to expire halfway through 2010, meaning state legislators will have to wade into the controversy when they convene in January. Known on Capitol Hill as ‘the Social Security offset,’ the issue pits the powerful interests of Utah employers - — who pay for unemployment insurance — against those of the growing ranks of elderly Utahns who continue working past retirement age, or who have been forced to return to work after seeing their savings drained by the recession…”

Utah poverty report points at middle-class decline, By Julia Lyon, August 19, 2009, Salt Lake Tribune: “A new poverty report released Wednesday sheds light on how many Utahns were already struggling before the recent economic downturn. ‘The biggest thing we see in the report is the falling of the middle class into poverty,’ said Heather Tritten, the executive director of the Utah Community Action Partnership Association. The 2009 Annual Report on Poverty in Utah combines data such as the unemployment rate, food stamp growth and insurance gaps, using statistics from the past several years. It analyzes poverty needs in every Utah county…”

• Auditors warn Utah Medicaid is likely wasting millions of taxpayer dollars, By Heather May, August 18, 2009, Salt Lake Tribune: ” Millions of tax dollars are likely being wasted in Utah’s Medicaid program on procedures — including a breast augmentation and nose jobs — that aren’t covered by the government insurance program, according to a scathing legislative audit released Tuesday. Millions more are lost because the Medicaid department isn’t adequately going after providers who submit fraudulent bills. And while there are three sets of internal auditors charged with overseeing the department and its $1.7 billion budget, none are independent enough to do their jobs appropriately, the report says…”
• Audit says Utah losing millions to Medicaid fraud, waste, By Lana Groves, August 18, 2009, Deseret News: “Legislators are appalled over the results of an audit reporting the state Medicaid system is losing millions because of an outdated system. The state audit released Tuesday found that the Utah Department of Health’s Bureau of Program Integrity, which checks for fraud, waste and abuse within the state Medicaid program, is mismanaged and failed on several occasions to follow policy regarding cost-saving methods…”

• 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…”

• Rural Indiana is seeing high rates of uninsured, By Daniel Lee, August 4, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Rural counties as well as areas in manufacturing-heavy Northern Indiana have some of the state’s highest rates of residents lacking health coverage, according to county-by-county data on the uninsured released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Marion County and its surrounding suburban counties, however, all have uninsured rates under the state’s average of 14.3 percent…”
• Tulsa-area uninsured rates rank low in state, By Kim Archer, August 4, 2009, Tulsa World: “The percentage of uninsured residents in Tulsa County and Oklahoma County are among the lowest statewide, but still well above the 15 percent national average, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Monday. The state average is 21 percent…”
• Census: 1 in 6 Utahns in ‘06 lacked health plan, By James Thalman and Lee Davidson, August 3, 2009, Deseret News: “As Congress debates health-care reform, the U.S. Census Bureau released estimates Monday that one of every six Utahns under age 65 had no health insurance in 2006. And that was before the recession began. Compiling such data from numerous studies and sources takes time and is routinely delayed a few years. Some more up-to-date estimates from newer annual census surveys, which just added questions about whether people are insured, are expected later this year…”
• Fifth of state residents lack health insurance, By Brian Hicks, August 4, 2009, Charleston Post and Courier: “U.S. Census estimates show that nearly 20 percent of South Carolina residents had no health insurance in 2006, but some experts say the recession likely has pushed that figure closer to one in every four people today. That would put the number of Palmetto State residents without health insurance at more than 1 million. While the nation debates a plan to provide health insurance to all Americans - and many argue over the impact that would have on existing medical care - the Census Bureau study shows that many people don’t have existing medical insurance to begin with…”