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"Gov. Mike Beebe's spokesman, Matt DeCample, called the preliminary rates great news for the state.' He credited the so-called private option, which uses Medicaid dollars to buy coverage for low-income adults on the insurance exchange, with adding more young, healthy people to insurance companies' plans, thus lowering the insurers' risk. Arkansas Surgeon General Joe Thompson agreed. About 65 percent of private option enrollees are younger than age 44, compared with 38 percent of those in non-Medicaid plans, he said. Thompson said the preliminary rates show that insurance companies overshot what they thought the risk was' in setting their initial rates for this year."

"In the results of the 30-year study and in his new book based on it, 'The Long Shadow: Family Background, Disadvantaged Urban Youth, and the Transition to Adulthood,' Alexander finds that things that were supposed to be great equalizers like economic opportunity and education weren't proving to be so equalizing."

"For the 16 million American children living below the federal poverty line, the start of a new school year should be reason to celebrate. Summer is no vacation when your parents are working multiple jobs or looking for one. Many kids are left to fend for themselves in neighborhoods full of gangs, drugs and despair. Given the hardships at home, poor kids might be expected to have the best attendance records, if only for the promise of a hot meal and an orderly classroom. But it doesn't usually work out that way. According to the education researchers Robert Balfanz and Vaughan Byrnes at Johns Hopkins, children living in poverty are by far the most likely to be chronically absent from school (which is generally defined as missing at least 10 percent of class days each year)."

"Other programs recommended by the plan involve community building efforts, such as connecting different generations in communal projects and cultural events, linking youths with positive peer groups and sponsoring social activities in areas with the highest concentration of social welfare case loads and community violence. The plan also envisions engaging businesses in economic rehabilitation of neighborhoods and providing living-wage jobs for community residents."

"The Southbridge schools are participating in a federal government-sponsored universal meal program called the Community Eligibility Provision, the latest opportunity for schools with high percentages of low-income children to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. Qualifying schools must have at least 40 percent of their students either in foster care, Head Start, or are confirmed as homeless, migrant or living in households that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance, or Food Distribution on Indian Reservation benefits. The meals program is a result of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, and it was phased in by the U.S. Department of Agriculture over three years."

"The rising percentage of Kansas children who receive free or reduced-price lunches at school is a genuine trend linked to poverty, not a ploy to boost school funding, the Kansas Association of School Boards said Monday. In an eight-page report, the association's researchers analyzed the increase in Kansas schools of children who qualify for free or reduced lunch based on family incomes."

"A potentially game-ending crisis for our nation is the growing number of people dependent on welfare - now at epidemic levels. The Census Bureau reports that in 2012, nearly 110 million Americans lived in a household that received some sort of means-tested aid. A whopping 35 percent of our population is on welfare. These figures don't include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment or veterans benefits.It does include 82 million people on Medicaid, with an additional 9 million expected to enroll this year due to Obamacare. In 2000, there were only 17 million people with EBT cards. That's up to 51 million now - 300 percent larger. Then there are 22 million on WIC; 13 million in public housing; 20 million on supplemental security income; 5 million on temporary assistance for needy families; and 4 million with other forms of tax-funded assistance."

"New data on federal public assistance programs show we've reached an ignominious milestone: More than 100 million Americans are getting some form of means-tested" welfare assistance. The Census Bureau found 51 million on food stamps at the end of 2012 and 83 million on Medicaid, with tens of millions of households getting both. Another 4 million were on unemployment insurance. The percentage of American households on welfare has reached 35%. If we include other forms of government assistance such as Medicare and Social Security, almost half of all households are getting a check or other form of government assistance."

"The state's effort to rein in Medicaid costs has created deep friction between small businesses that deliver behavioral-health services to Medicaid patients and a new contractor hired to manage them. Service providers across Idaho have raised complaints over the last 11 months that the contractor, Optum Idaho, a unit of United Behavioral Health, has created red tape and cut services needed by at-risk patients. Now providers in the Treasure Valley have raised another complaint: Optum isn't paying them promptly, putting their businesses' survival and employees' jobs at risk. Optum says it has fixed a glitch that resulted in tiny claims payments to the companies, which provide counseling and other behavioral health services to low-income and disabled adults and children on Medicaid."