Half A Job…
First surprise: the Department of Social Services posted the Family Support Division, MO HealthNet Division Monthly Management Report for March 2020 right when they should have!
Second surprise: Family Support managed to field only half a response to the blossoming economic crisis.
As we know, hundreds of thousands of Missourians got pushed out of work right around St. Patrick’s Day. Now, applying for food stamps and other benefits isn’t the very first thing struggling folks do, but, a lot of families teetering just above poverty probably applied for help in their early days after losing work. Indeed, Table 27 in the March report shows that 19,083 households sought Expedited (a.k.a. ‘Emergency’) food stamps in March.
Yet, the total number of Missouri households getting food stamps climbed by just 1,478 households from February to March – meaning better than 90% of those seeking quick help ended the month without aid.
Remember, Missouri chronically, purposely understaffs DSS. Where they need three staff, they put one harried worker in a Call Center cubicle. The system fails struggling Missourians every day in good times. These are not good times.
So, why does Missouri get half credit?
In February the average food stamp benefit in Missouri was $121.60. That jumped to $172.37 in March. The state did implement the ‘everyone gets the max’ food stamp benefit authorization in the early virus response legislation.
Oh yes, in other states the bureaucrats have issued press releases and worked with advocates to help struggling families navigate the benefit maze. Don’t even dream that for Missouri.
What’s ahead? A quick, very steep climb in the number of participants in the food stamp program, and, a big pop in the MO HealthNet totals – especially medical coverage for kids.
The only reality holding back the climb will be the utter lack of adequate resources at DSS to do their job. As friends at pantries keep telling me, the Call Center system to run benefit programs just doesn’t work. People spend days dialing trying to get to a person, then get caught within a bureaucracy beyond Kafka’s nightmares.
Back in the Great Recession, the food stamp climb began in June 2008, rose quickly in 2009 and then hit a long plateau. The highest participant total? December 2011
Expect a similar pattern with this calamity with food stamp numbers staying stubbornly high through 2020 and 2022.
The only way to decrease the rolls would be to hack the program off at the knees – as the Trump administration and heartless Senate Republicans keep trying to do.
Fortunately, I expect Missouri voters to expand Medicaid this November. Then we’ll begin the battle to make DSS ramp up to do its job of helping more of our neighbors.
In other words, hang on, it’s going to be a rough ride.
Missouri March Benefits
2020 2011
Temporary Assistance
Kids 16,022 72,276
Adults 4,742 37,363
Total 20,764 109,639
Benefits $2,010,829 $10,142,193
Per Family $225.23 $238.33
Per Day $ 7.27 $ 7.69
MO HealthNet (Medicaid)
Enrolled 860,896 899,890
Covered 875,875 948,513
Cost $896,015,799 $533,942,216
Per Person $1,023 $562.93
Managed Care 593,123 445,290
Per Patient $277.22 $180.06
Food Stamps
Participants 660,628 946,034
Benefits $113,875,452 $120,548,603
Per Person $172.37 $127.43
Per Meal $ 1.85 $ 1.37
Remember, in February 2020 Missouri issued $79.9 million in food stamps.
https://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/fsd_mhdmr/0320-family-support-mohealthnet-report.pdf
https://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/fsd_mhdmr/01103.pdf
Food Stamps After Great Recession, chart: https://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/fsd_mhdmr/1303-family-support-mohealthnet-report.pdf Figure 6, page 152
Glenn