Down, Down, Down…
Water skims your chin as you find the only hatch to the deck of the boat jammed. Those behind you decide to panic, shoving and clawing and screaming.
Don’t worry: your day will get worse.
That’s the situation with the public benefit programs helping about one in six Missouri citizens. Beyond the panic, all data points to even less assistance being shared with kids and seniors, working folk and the disabled. As some want, each day the “system” allows even more people to suffer.
The Department of Social Services has released the Monthly Management Report for the Family Support Division and MO HealthNet for August 2019. Give the bureaucrats half a point: the report was issued in near record time, and, the new design is more readable (even if it is twice the file size as the old style).
Alas, the numbers are tragic…
Jump to the big issue. This August, Missouri had 897,802 citizens enrolled in Medicaid/MO HealthNet. That compares to 985,392 in August 2016. And, in the past year (August 2019 compared to August 2018) the number of children covered dropped from 579,507 to 508,838, a loss of 70,669 kids.
Ironically, the August 2019 numbers reflect an improvement in the situation – July 2018 to July 2019 the drop was 85,117 kids!
Remember, even without Medicaid Expansion the Children’s Health Insurance Program is available – at no cost – to kids in families with incomes around the state’s median household income. Under those current rules we ought to have at least 700,000 and possibly close to 800,000 children covered. State bureaucrats and the leading Republicans claim, repeatedly, that the decline is due to ‘the improved economy’ and families choosing not to have free coverage for their kids. Yeah.
An interesting tidbit from general MO HealthNet summary. Traditionally, each month the state pays for care for more people than are Enrolled that month. That makes sense, bills come in for people who formerly had coverage. It isn’t unusual for the state to have bills from 3% or even 5% more citizens than that Enrolled number.
Surprise! In the August 2019 report Missouri had 897,802 folks Enrolled but paid for care for just 894,509 people. Weird.
In other trivia, the number of Missourians on Temporary Assistance grew again in August, adding 412 people statewide from July’s total and 818 from June’s total. That’s not many but it reinforces my belief that even with the current draconian rules there is a floor below which the system can’t fall.
Oh yes, I said some people want benefit programs to wither. For years the Cato Institute has published misleading reports claiming those on welfare do much, much better than working people:
“In Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., welfare pays more than a $20-an-hour job, and in five additional states it yields more than a $15-per-hour job.” –– CATO Institute August 21, 2013
And, time and again Missouri Republicans claim the state can’t afford to accept the free federal funds to pay for Medicaid Expansion.
My personal view is that those in power want to dramatically slash the size of government (so rich people pay less in taxes) and they want to force as many human beings as possible into low-paying jobs. As evidence I look at the failure of the Republican led Senate in Washington to even consider raising the $7.25 an hour minimum wage.
Plus, remember, Missouri is where then state representative Cynthia Davis said ‘Hunger can be a positive thing’ and perhaps kids ought to be required to work at school for their “free” school lunch.
August Missouri Benefits
2019 2016
Temporary Assistance
Children 16,837 25,371
Parents 5,040 8,827
TOTAL 21,877 34,198
Payments $2,121,079 $3,299,628
Per Family $226.06 $226.67
Per Day $7.29 $7.32
Medicaid/MO Health Net
Enrolled 897,802 985,392
Covered 984,509 1,027,878
Cost $729,541,350 $677,730,011
Per Patient $815.58 $659.35
Managed Care 621,380 539,169
MC Premium $265.13 $208.77
SNAP/Food Stamps
Participants 683,574 778,847
Benefits $82,248,565 $93,874,277
Per Person $120.39 $120.53
Per Meal <$1.29 >$1.30
Glenn