No matter how much the Missouri legislature wants to slash benefit programs, the unavoidable reality remains that better than one in six Missourians cannot survive without Medicaid, food stamps and other “welfare” programs.
According to the March 2018 Monthly Management Report for the Family
Support Division and MO HealthNet Division [
https://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/fsd_mhdmr/1803-family-support-mohealthnet-report.pdf
], this March…
► 1,100,419 Missourians received health care thanks to Medicaid;
► 741,860 Missourians received food thanks to SNAP; and,
► Just 25,614 Missouri parents and kids received cash grant
welfare.
This March the bill for Medicaid benefits paid to health care providers
(hospitals, pharmacies, doctors and – the greatest portion – to insurance
companies) was three-quarters of a billion dollars. That works-out to an
annual cost of nine billion dollars a year. Yes, that’s real money even if
the biggest chunk comes from Washington.
Ironically, if Missouri had expanded Medicaid as allowed by the Obama
administrations, around 1.3 million Missourians would be covered – while
the cost to Missouri would be less than we now pay. That’s because
Missouri would get 90% reimbursement for the expanded program, against
about 60% to 65% now received. In other words, giving hundreds of
thousands of our neighbors reliable access to health care wouldn’t cost us
more money.
A few years back about 110,000 Missouri citizens benefited from the
Temporary Assistance program. As mentioned before, elected senators and
representatives – over the Veto of Governor Jay Nixon – set in motion the
destruction of Temporary Assistance. The adjunct promise? The Department
of Social Services would pay for a first-rate, effective job training and
placement effort to move adults from the “welfare rolls” to
‘self-sufficiency.’ To do that they awarded contracts to agencies about
the state, local vendors who (supposedly) had the contacts and professional
staff to get adults into good paying jobs offering 30 hours or more of
employment each week.
Hasn’t happened.
Years into the new order, well, this March just 1,024 adults were in
mandatory or voluntary Work Activities. Now, I could note that from
February to March there was a 100% drop in the number of Missourians in On
The Job Training. That’s true. Yet, I feel compelled to note that column
went from one person to none. On the good side, DSS increased the number
of folks in Education Related To Employment by 6%, from 34 in February
soaring to 36 in March!
More important, I have not heard one story nor read any report which claims
that even one family has become self-sufficient thanks to DSS’s funded
effort!
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member