Missouri Families Cheated Out Of $54 Million In Food Stamps
Several weeks ago I received a nice one-page flyer from friends in the anti-hunger field explaining how pandemic food stamp bonus payments were going to stop – to be replaced by the new, more adequate formula imposed by Biden’s USDA. Take the increase against the loss and most all SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] recipients ought to come out a bit ahead.
Except in Missouri..
The Missouri Department of Social Services has issued the September 2021 Monthly Management Report for the Family Support Division and MO HealthNet Division. [ www.dss.mo.gov/re ] Here’s a quick review…
► The number of Missourians receiving Temporary Assistance grew by 51 people, to 14,824 (down 33% from 9/20). The average benefit was $ 7.52 per family per day (compared to $ 7.95 last September).
► Even before expansion finally took effect, the number served by Medicaid/MO HealthNet reached 1,112,773 enrolled, at a cost of $825,314,196.52 — $742.31 per recipient. That includes 826,669 on Managed Care at $288.90 a head. (Yes, that means the non-Managed Care patients cost around $2,400 each, or, around eight times the MC premium.)
► The food stamp recipient total dropped by 9,058 Missourians: benefits dropped by $54,165,583 from August.
Yes, the per person allocation went from $230.07 in August to $153.88 in September, a drop from $2.47 per person per meal to $1.65.
Now, not everyone gets $1.65. In Worth County, for example, the benefit was $125.55 per person/$1.35 per meal. You see, despite what should be a standardized formula the benefits vary a lot from county to county in Missouri – much more than in most states. St. Louis City stampers got $161.70 per person and countians received $160.47 ($1.73 per meal). That’s good for the locals but not right…Oh yes, Wright countians got $1.51 per meal.
This drop in benefits did not have to happen. And, again, it didn’t in most states. Missouri seized the opportunity to kick the poor while they’re down – and food prices are soaring. The state could have maintained the pandemic bonus for one more month by simple administrative book keeping. They chose to take $54 million out of grocery store registers.
Allow me to repeat that Missouri ought to have 250,000 more citizens receiving food stamps, as well as another 275,000 or more on Medicaid. And, in this economy, the Temporary Assistance rolls ought to be several times what they were in September. The numbers are anemic due to too few state workers, decrepit technology and, well, His Accidency’s unofficial motto of “F&%k The Poor.” Missouri policy remains to punish struggling families at every opportunity, just as the state abuses its own workers with low pay and depreciating benefits.
By the way, September will be the last month for the current summary chart of Medicaid benefits, Table 23. Adding the Adult Eligibility Group and linking the ‘adults’ families will require some serious reformatting. Afterall, they have to be kept separate so they can be jettisoned from the program at the earlies convenience. The actual enactment of Medicaid Expansion will not be pretty, nor will the state do anything to make it efficient.
Stay tuned.
Glenn Koenen
Photo source: Governor Mike Parson’s official Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/govmikeparson/51639698334/