Wow!
I didn’t realize that Missouri’s economy had completely recovered from the COVID downturn in time for Halloween! Every one was back at work, schools were back to normal and the state’s low taxes (and low services) resulted in a tremendous economic miracle!
What, that’s not what happened?
Take a look at the Monthly Management Report for the Family Support Division and MO HealthNet Division for October 2020 [ October 2020 Monthly Management Report ] issued by the Missouri Department of Social Services and what other conclusion can you get?
☻The number of Missourians receiving food stamps dropped 3.5% from September and 6% from August;
☻The number receiving Temporary Assistance dropped by 7.6% from August to October;
☻ No one on TA in the state needed On The Job Training to find work; and,
☻ Despite COVID and the weak economy the number of Missourians assisted by Medicaid [MO HealthNet]with nursing home care dropped! [ https://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/fsd_mhdmr/0920-family-support-mohealthnet-report.pdf ]
What other possible explanation could there be except that His Accidency, Missouri Governor Mike Parson and his crack team of experts led the state to Nirvana?
Well, maybe a couple of possibilities:
► Many who qualify for help have been denied aid because of closed offices, staff working remotely without adequate access to vital file information and an inability to comprehend DSS-ese, that pseudo-English language used in their official communications.
► The system for operating benefit programs remains broken, Or…
► Missouri’s elected leaders and senior bureaucrats just don’t give a damn about the poor.
Remember, the head of Medicaid (a former Speaker of the Missouri House) gets paid the same quarter of a million bucks a year if his division cares for a million Missourians or 100,000.
So, here are the numbers for October 2020 with a nostalgic look back at October 2014. Things weren’t perfect then, but, well, the people in charge seemed to care.
October Missouri Benefits
2020 2014
Temporary Assistance
Kids 16,082 51,531
Adults 5,274 24,876
Total 21,356 76,407
Benefits $2,139,920 $6,818,825
Per Family $ 238.62 $ 228.58
Per Day $ 7.70 $ 7.37
MO HealthNet
Enrolled 1,004,321 860,659
Covered 999,142 875,320
Cost $919,750,215 $699,930,458
Per Person $ 920.54 $ 799.63
Managed Care 717,382 404,827
Premium $ 287.21 $ 205.18
Nursing Home
Patients 23,485 24,109
Food Stamps
Participants 726,067 833,624
Benefits $133,606,680 $105,196,720
Per Person $ 184.02 $ 126.19
Per Meal $ 1.98 $ 1.36
https://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/fsd_mhdmr/1410-family-support-mohealthnet-report.pdf
Now, before a certain someone asks, here’s what the October 2020 participant totals should be:
Temporary Assistance 35,000 (even under the post-2015 rules)
MO HealthNet 1,200,000
Food Stamps 960,000
Remember, with Medicaid Expansion next year we should see a jump in the number covered to around 1.2 to 1.4 million.
Glenn