Health and Poverty News
"Rosa Lara, a Richmond resident who delivered 900 signatures to the council opposing the measure, said an economic downturn is not the time to introduce new taxes, particularly in a city with a high poverty rate. Nearly 20 percent of Richmond residents live below the poverty line, according to federal data."
"The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (formerly food stamps) is targeted at our most vulnerable: 76 percent of SNAP households include a child, senior or disabled person, and 85 percent have gross income at or below 100 percent of the poverty line."
"An ideological battle about abortion is being waged in the Ohio Statehouse as lawmakers consider a bill that would essentially take away federal family planning grants from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio."
"As a dentist who treats primarily Medicaid, low-income and indigent patients in his private practice and who founded and built the N.C. Missions of Mercy free dental-care program, I am very attuned to the dental access crisis we have in this state."
"The proposed two-year, three-county pilot program would test participants in the Ohio Works First program, which provides cash benefits to Ohioans who earn no more than 50 percent of the federal poverty level for up to 36 months."
"About 200 Wake County employees – who handle tasks such as working with drug-addicted homeless people and children with mental illness – are finding their jobs in limbo because of a proposed restructuring of county services by the UNC Health Care System."
"The doctoring Wednesday was part of a military program to provide free health care in poor areas of the South and whose latest mission came to one of Alabama's most impoverished regions, where the teams have treated more than 12,000 people in less than two weeks."
"Those who live in neighborhoods where grocery stores and healthy food are plentiful might not think of food access as 'a problem' in Colorado. But sadly, healthy food simply isn't readily available for far too many Coloradans in rural and low-income areas."
"The state took over the county's share of paying for Medicaid services to low-income and disabled Ohioans seeking drug treatment. In addition, the state added $14 million for medication-assisted treatment, which is when a drug is used to help wean people off more-dangerous, addictive narcotics."
"An $8.5 million federal grant will test a plan developed by University of New Mexico physicians to cut Medicaid costs by providing better care for the program's sickest and costliest patients."
"A second piece of legislation approved by the House asks the federal government to exempt specialty destination hospitals - defined as for-profits with fewer than 50 beds that draw at least 65 percent of their business from out of state - from a Medicaid tax paid by nonprofit hospitals. The money is used to fund care for low-income residents."
"When it comes to nutrition policy, we know about a lot of things that don’t work: Soda taxes and proximity to healthy foods, for example, have relatively shaky support in the public health literature. At the same time, we know we need something to work: The CDC projects that 42 percent of the country will be obese by 2030."
"That was the sentiment highlighted with bold-face text in the description of the poverty simulation experience held last week on the campus of Western Oregon University in Monmouth. It was a concise and to-the-point lesson for participants: poverty is not a game."
"The doctoring Wednesday was part of a military program to provide free health care in poor areas of the South and whose latest mission came to one of Alabama's most impoverished regions, where the teams have treated more than 12,000 people in less than two weeks. "
"Health care leaders here describe the county's network of primary care for the poor and uninsured – including people who don't get health insurance through their employers or can't afford it on their own – as 'fragmented,' 'frayed' and two to three decades behind the times."
"That means parents will have to scramble to feed children - many of them low-income - who are accustomed to free school meals but will not receive them. The district must cut $26 million by June and faces an additional $218 million deficit for 2012-13."
"Medicaid, which provides health coverage for low-income Americans, is jointly funded by the state and federal governments. Federal officials have not yet agreed to grant Oregon a waiver from standard Medicaid regulations, which is needed for the program to be implemented and the money to be spent."
"BMC HealthNet, a health plan owned by Boston Medical Center that serves exclusively lower-income people, is set to grow its membership by up to a third over the next few years - but some of that growth depends on the national health care overhaul, currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court, remaining intact."
"The pilot program, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, offers preventive and primary care to low-wage, uninsured workers in the restaurant industry. Legal immigrants and other restaurant workers who don't meet the criteria or cannot afford coverage under the healthcare law are also eligible."
"The state NAACP and other groups representing low-income and working families on Tuesday called on Carolinas HealthCare System to stop suing patients who can’t afford to pay their hospital bills."
"Manet will use the money to bolster services for low-income elders and residents living in public housing. It will create a center in North Quincy, scheduled to be completed in March 2015, that will include 25 exam rooms and a pharmacy. The expansion is expected to make room for 5,286 additional patients."
"That controversial plan to open a wet house in San Francisco where chronic homeless drunks can get city housing and keep drinking took a big step forward Monday. Mayor Ed Lee and a bevy of city officials toured the Seattle version, where the building's staff even goes on booze runs for some residents, dispersing beer, wine and vodka. "
"They include a $246,000 annual grant for two years from the Verdant Health Commission, based in Lynnwood, and $386,000 from the county's 1/10th of 1 percent tax to benefit drug, alcohol and mental-health programs. The program is limited to women who are pregnant with their first child. It targets but is not limited to low-income women."
"Low-income residents of three areas in Alabama's economically depressed Black Belt region will receive free medical care, dental exams and vision screenings over the next two weeks thanks to military reservists and National Guard members from across the country."
"Textiles were the economic engine of the area until the 1990s, when the industry went into decline and mills shut down. Now one of the region's leading employers is Pilgrim's, a chicken supplier. The median household income is $31,213, and more than a third of children live below the poverty line."
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