Missouri February Benefit Numbers Released
In Missouri, it’s good enough to say you have Temporary Assistance, food stamp and Medicaid programs: you don’t need to provide inclusive, effective and professionally administered programs.
The Department of Social Services has released the Family Support Division and MO HealthNet Division Monthly Management Report for February 2021. [ Monthly Management Report ]
In addition, information on the DSS response to COVID – closed offices, piled up paperwork and basically letting state staff get sick – has been filtering out of the bureaucracy. The bottom line is that Missouri taxpayers are not getting what they paid for, and, struggling citizens are not getting the services they need and are entitled to get.
For example, in February 2020 right before the pandemic slapped us all silly, 657,317 Missourians received food stamps. That number was lower than it should have been due to the waves of impediments Missouri places between hungry families and help. Still, here it’s our baseline. As the chart on page 152 of this February’s report shows, the number getting stamps soared almost straight up from March till May. Then – this being Missouri – came the sky slope decline before hitting the bouncing plateau of the past five months. The stats show just a 6.5% increase from February to February…
So, a look at food stamp reports implies that Missouri’s economy was almost back to normal last fall and this February was just a little bit below the pre-pandemic level. (If you believe that, let me sell you a pair of well maintained bridges over the Mississippi River.)
As a friend says about Covid, If you don’t count cases they can’t be used against you. In a similar way, keeping hungry families from getting help lessens the workload on state workers, and, makes the state appear to be in better financial shape than reality proves.
The only good news here: due to federal action, the amount of food stamps per person per month rose from $121.60 [$1.40 per person per meal] to $213.44 [$2.54]. That rang an additional $69 million on grocery store cash registers this February!
Let’s look back at February 2011. As you recall, America was working its way out of the Great Recession and government programs were doing their part.
Missouri February Benefits
2021 2011
Temporary Assistance
Children 13,786 71,965
Adults 4,167 37,121
Total 17,953 109,086
Benefits $1,718,276 $10,140,361
Per Family $222.67 $239.31
Per Day $ 7.95 $ 8.55
MO HealthNet (Medicaid)
Enrolled 1,095,966 903,013
Covered 1,043,682 944,901
Cost $818,571,077 $631,164,007
Per Person $784.31 $667.97
Managed Care 764,345 447,393
Cost Per Person $287.67 $179.94
Food Stamps
Participants 699,811 940,259
Benefits $149,365,445 $119,771,813
Per Person $213.44 $127.38
Per Meal $ 2.54 $ 1.52
Sr. Louis Co. 108,152 117,048
Jackson Co. 97,989 123,320
St Louis City 68,742 109,752
Greene Co. 34,004 41,781
Jefferson 18,800 26,561
Monthly Management Report for 2/11
The city 2021 numbers scare me. They’re nothing new but all I hear from food pantries and other service providers leads me to think that the actual number of struggling, eligible people in the city is perhaps only 10% lower than a decade ago – those left behind in a job-related migration to the county and beyond tend to be the young, old and unemployable.
A quick note on Medicaid Expansion…those who will get coverage are almost all working folks and probably 95% of them will join the Managed Care rolls – at a significant lower cost than grannies in nursing homes.
More on Medicaid Expansion and the Missouri legislature coming very soon.
Glenn Koenen