February 2022 Missouri Benefit Report Issued
Quick question: if you lacked health insurance would you turn down free coverage?
Well, according to the Missouri Department of Social Services most adults newly eligible for Medicaid haven’t applied – officially. Barely one person in four eligible for Medicaid under the expanded guidelines had signed-up after five months of applications.
The Monthly Management Report for the Family Support Division and the MO HealthNet Division within the Missouri Department of Social Services for February 2022 has been issued. As usual, the numbers are ugly.
The state began accepting applications for adults now eligible for Medicaid in October. The best guesses said 275,000 Missouri citizens became eligible on 10/1/21. Remember, in other states that opened the flood gates people poured on to the rolls, with Oklahoma signing-up 100,000 people in about a month.
Missouri’s track record?
Total Enrolled At Month End Adult Expansion Group
October ’21 November ’21 December ’21 January ’22 February ‘22
14,005 20,927 53,643 62,297 70,909
Now, His Accidency’s administration doesn’t like Medicaid and they especially think free health care for working people (most in the expansion group have jobs) is bovine waste product. They never geared-up MO HealthNet resources to process the flood of applications and for most the only way to apply starts with the state’s Call Centers – which kick you off if your call isn’t answered in the first four hours, meaning most never get to a live person. As a result, don’t expect any effort from the former legislator running Medicaid nor from the governor’s personal bureaucrat heading DSS. It’s a good think that poor people can’t get medicine or see a doctor.
Sound cruel? In the Missouri House of Representatives 96 members voted last month to make people work for their Medicaid and to give the legislature the power to stop funding as much of Medicaid as they want.
(The big problem with work requirements is that they don’t work and they require a tremendous amount of state staff time to track. Plus, there is no penalty for an employer who doesn’t verify hours worked, meaning someone can comply and still get punished.)
Missouri’s other benefit programs performed as poorly as usual. While Temporary Assistance gained 36 people, food stamps shed 1,005. As I say every month, thousands upon thousands more Missourians ought to be getting benefits.
Missouri Benefits
February 2022 February 2017
Temporary Assistance
Children 11,321 23,312
Parents 3,241 7,851
Total 14,562 31,163
Payments $1,415,598 $2,993,076
Per Family $ 225.59 $ 226.37
Per Day $ 8.06 $ 8.08
Food Stamps
Participants 640,799 758,123
Benefits $104,710,478 $ 92,530,563
Per Person $ 163.41 $ 122.05
Per Meal $ 1.94 $ 1.45
MO HealthNet
Enrolled 1,200,259 991,572
Covered 1,206,505 1,026,987
Cost $847,880,043 $817,178,612
Per Person $ 702.76 $ 795.70
Managed Care 912,668 512,481
Premium $ 300.27 $ 226.04
Adult Expan. 70,909 — 0 —
Cost $59,118,834
Per Adult $ 976.14
More later from The State of Misery.
Glenn