Wild & Depressing Numbers In Missouri March 2019 Benefit Report As DSS Director Rides Into Sunset
Son, we’d like to keep you around this season but we’re going to try and win a pennant. — Casey Stengel
The director of the Missouri Department of Social Services, Steve Corsi, PhD, announced his resignation.
That won’t keep the ship from sinking.
Each day DSS fails to give good service to struggling citizens or good value to taxpayers.
The federal government shut-down pushed what little functionality the bureaucrats could muster out of the game…
- The January 2019 Family Support Division/ MO HealthNet Division Monthly Management Report required dramatic, uncited revisions to try and get food stamp numbers correct.
- The February report claimed a significant surge in food stamp recipients, followed by a March report purporting to show the steepest one-month declines in decades.
- Medicaid (aka MO HealthNet) is in freefall with thousands of eligible, needy people getting forced off the rolls each week.
Kids On Missouri Medicaid
March 2018 March 2019
592,611 526,260 – 69,351
Total Enrolled In Medicaid
March 2018 March 2019
969,049 892,341 – 76,708
Missouri 2019 Food Stamp Recipients [Latest Claimed Numbers]
January February March
707,672 720,813 696,214
Missouri March Food Stamp Recipients
2017 2018 2019
758,881 741,860 696,214
The March Monthly Management Report may not be the final word on how many Missourians kept a hand on the safety net. Still, it paints a depressing picture of a failed system.
March Missouri Benefits
2019 2018
Temporary Assistance
Kids 16,569 19,638
Adults 4,812 5,976
Total 21,381 25,614
Benefits Paid $2,083,263 $2,474,098
Per Family $221.98 $223.31
Per Day $ 7.16 $ 7.20
MO HealthNet
Enrolled 892,341 969,049
Covered 928,785 1,100,419
Cost $734,961,995 $749,003,925
Per Patient $791.32 $680.65
Managed Care $249.42 $195.25
Food Stamps
Participants 696,214 741,860
Benefits $83,002,815 $88,955,946
Per Person $119.22 $119.91
Per Meal $ 1.28 $ 1.29
https://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/fsd_mhdmr/1903-family-support-mohealthnet-report.pdf
https://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/fsd_mhdmr/1803-family-support-mohealthnet-report.pdf
Oh, at a Jefferson City meeting on Tuesday the head of the Family Support Division, offered an explanation for the steep decline in those getting help from the state: the improving economy. Patrick Luebbering even passed out a neat colored chart showing the declines relative to the unemployment rate and the state’s posted poverty rate.
The unemployment rate, alas, is not a reliable barometer. Remember, a working mom with two kids can earn $13.30 an hour, 40 hours every week, and still be eligible for food stamps. Most new jobs in Missouri are paying $10.00 an hour or less – and are part-time and come without health care benefits. That’s why the decline in the number of kids covered by Medicaid gets scary, it points to more and more working families living without health care for the adults and the kids.
Across the nation, food stamp rolls are getting slimmer. The rate of decline in Missouri just doesn’t feel right and the swings in numbers during the first quarter of the year don’t inspire confidence in the system, especially when the system consists of Call Centers which are perpetually short of staff to even answer the phones. (In March about one-third of the calls were “deflected.”)
Steve Corsi came to Missouri at Eric Greitens’ request. Like Governor SEAL, he won’t be missed.
The accidental governor is expected to anoint a new director for DSS in a few weeks. If he follows his playbook, he’ll announce a “nationwide search” – then appoint a current or former member of the General Assembly to the job.
A Few Quick Words About Money
Imagine you had a goal of collecting $100. When you count your money you find yourself a quarter, two dimes and two pennies over goal: would you consider that a rousing success?
If you’re a Missouri Republican you would.
According to an April 23 report from the Missouri Department of Revenue, receipts – for the first time in the first ten months of the current Fiscal Year – crept above the receipts total for the same time in 2018 by 0.47%.
Yes, Missouri is still trending well below the growth necessary to fund the current budget, but, hey, hang on to any good news you can find!
Of course, the extra money came from tax return payments, spurred by local fallout from the Trump tax cuts and those slightly too grabby with holding tables issued a couple of months ago. And the prospects of getting the ‘expected 2% growth’ in Fiscal Year 2020 still appear dim. While not yet time for champagne, perhaps an Old Milwaukee’s Best is appropriate in GOP circles.
Glenn