Some Things Are So Broken They Can’t Be Fixed
A few decades back, when we bought our house, my father in law offered me a lawn mower. Inherited from his uncle, Bob took the machine into his workshop and manufactured new axles (yes, manufactured), rebuilt the carburetor and installed larger wheels. The result was a circa 1960 mower with one speed – flat out – a 2¾ horse Briggs engine which always started with one pull yet was easily light enough to manhandle around bushes, trees and such. Not flashy but highly efficient, the mower gave me years of hard service.
Oh, every couple of years I carted the machine back to ‘the factory’ for a tune-up and maintenance…until my father in law gave the sad news that the mower’s time was over. Metal fatigue and heavy use caused the deck to crack, meaning one bump and the engine and blade would fall to the ground. “Some things are so broken they can’t be fixed,” he said, with regret.
That same line ought to be applied to the Missouri Department of Social Services.
As reported by The Missouri Independent. Missouri judge denies state’s request to dismiss federal SNAP lawsuit. A couple of disabled citizens were stymied in applying for food stamps due to the state’s virtually non-functional Call Center system, and, a lack of workers to process applications in the few remaining DSS offices. One day a litigant was told that almost 700 callers were ahead of them. The state claimed the two litigants had gotten their cases resolved, dismiss the case. The judge said, ‘not so fast,’ they’ll still have to be re-certified by the same system, so, this needs to be fixed.
One of the state’s talking points: the wait time to get a call answered had dropped to just under an hour from, often, four hours or more. That’s probably not true. I’m still hearing from pantry people that clients complain of ‘waiting all day’ to talk to someone.
This bureaucratic systematized denial of service explains, in part, why a couple of hundred thousand eligible, working Missourians aren’t on the food stamp rolls. Keep people from applying and – surprise! – the number of participants drops.
State workers also continue to under-perform in enrolling working poor citizens into the expanded Medicaid (MO HealthNet) program. As I’ll get into in a minute, just 196,572 people out of a projected 275,000 to 325,000 eligible now get adult Medicaid.
Only that’s not the true number. In the past year the number served by Women’s Health Services dropped from 46,259 in June 2021 to 12,455 this June ( -71%) and, the Pregnant Women category went from 58,126 to 37,339 (-36%). That suggests to me that about 30% of the claimed Adult Expansion enrollment came from transferred cases and not new applicants.
Now, I’m a glass half empty kind of guy. I think the nation entered a recession this spring. That means Missouri should soon be hit with a rapid increase in citizens seeking food stamps, Medicaid and other benefits. This June the state ought to have had around 800,000 people getting SNAP, and, an increase of 100,000 participants should be expected as recession tightens its grip. MO HealthNet ought to get a jolt of new enrollees as thousands of lower-tier workers move from full time jobs with benefits to part-time work, or, unemployment.
Alas, DSS – as demonstrated by that federal lawsuit and those Medicaid numbers – can’t effectively manage its current case load. Their leadership will have excuses for non-performance but the bottom line is the current system can’t get the job done.
It’s time to start fresh. Other states (such as Oklahoma and Illinois) do a better job. Learn from others. Dissolve the Department of Social Services and create a new Department of Human Services with entirely new leadership, modern computer systems and a focus on helping citizens.
Yes, it will be expensive and messy. A new system may work: the current system promises only more failure and pain to those needing help.
Missouri June Benefits
2022 2019
Temporary Assistance
Children 10,664 16,318
Parents 2,940 4,741
Total 13,604 21,059
Payments $1,312,377 $2,037,896
Per Family $ 223.99 $ 221.65
Per Day $ 7.47 $ 7.39
Food Stamps (SNAP)
Participants 656,973 682,299
Benefits $108,412,957 $ 81,712,134
Per Person $ 165.02 $ 119.76
Per Meal $ 1.83 $ 1.33
Medicaid (MO HealthNet)
Enrolled 1,299,172 858,077
Covered 1,290,240 965,140
Benefits $887,312,259 $748,398,839
Per Person $ 687.71 $ 773.36
Managed Care 95,875 715,965
Premium Per $ 320.42 $ 223.27
A Quick Note…
In June 2021 the average food stamp benefit was $2.53 per person per meal. Boy, it’s great that the price of food has plummeted in recent months!
Glenn Koenen