Stateline Stories

Delay in Implementing Sequester Forces Deeper Unemployment Cuts

Unemployment benefits were already on the chopping block thanks to sequestration. But in three-dozen states, the pain for the long-term unemployed is even greater because states have been slow to enact the across-the-board federal cuts.

States Taking in More Refugees from Mideast and Asia

People fleeing persecution around the world settle in different states. Pennsylvania, for example, has become home for many refugees from Bhutan. What are the other high-destination states?

Congress May Reverse Some of Sequester’s Cuts to WIC

An effort to keep the federal government open could also deliver relief to pregnant women, mothers and young children in need of food.

Nevada No Longer Tops in Unemployment

California and Rhode Island have bumped Nevada from the top jobless spot in the nation with the highest unemployment rates among the states at 9.8 percent each. Nevada dipped to 9.7 percent.

Census: People with Disabilities More Likely to be Unemployed, Poorly Paid

New data from the Census Bureau shows a wage gap that persists even within particular occupations.

Health Care Cuts From Vaccinations to Research

Automatic cuts to federal health-care programs may make it more difficult for low-income Americans to get maternal and infant care, vaccinate their children, and receive treatment for mental illness.

Price tag of Sequester to States: $6 Billion

The belt-tightening from Washington begins in earnest, but states still aren’t sure just what the sequester will mean for them.

‘Cliff’ Deal Answers a Few Questions for States

Congress averted the much-feared “fiscal cliff” late Tuesday, passing a legislative package to be signed promptly by President Obama. The deal answered a few burning questions for state governments, but many still linger.

Election Year Brings Big Changes in State Policy

From battles in the legislatures to battles at the polls, Stateline reporters traveled all over the country in 2012 reporting on news from the states.

Jobless Benefits At Risk in Fiscal Cliff Debate

Amid the fervor over the fiscal cliff in Washington, there’s one federal program also facing a Dec. 31, 2012 deadline that if allowed to pass could cost unemployed Americans thousands of dollars and deprive states of crucial federal funding that’s helped them weather the worst of the Great Recession.

Concerns Mount Over State Handling of Mortgage Funds

As states spend the $2.5 billion awarded to them as part of the mortgage crisis settlement agreed to earlier this year, there’s growing concern funds aren’t going where help’s needed most.

States Struggle With Unemployment Funds Still in the Red

More than $26 billion in lingering debt and billions in mounting interest have forced a number of states to scale back unemployment benefits, raise taxes, tap general funds and even turn to the private bond market.

Welfare Waiver Proposal Hits Potential Roadblock

It took less than a month for the Obama administration’s move in July to grant states more flexibility in handling their welfare programs to shift from low-profile policy proposal to hot-button political issue that quickly permeated the presidential race.

One of Five Americans Struggling To Afford Food, Survey Finds

Despite record food stamp enrollment around the country and an economy considered to be on a modest upswing, the Great Recession is continuing to take its toll on many Americans, a Gallup survey found.

Heat Wave, Budget Cuts Strain Utility Safety Net

Budget cuts and a blistering hot spell wave left states short on cash this summer while tackling high energy demand. Now many worry about having enough heat when winter comes.

Still No Farm Bill, But More Assistance to Drought-Ravaged States

With Congress still at an impasse over the farm bill, the Obama Administration this week pledged $30 million more to aid farmers and ranchers hit hard by drought.

Safety Net Hospitals Imperiled by High Court Ruling

Hospitals that serve the poor thought they would be helped by the Affordable Care Act. Now it looks as if they will be hurt by it.

A Likely Reprieve for Food Stamp Program

The food stamp program has been facing the threat of deep reductions that would cut off benefits for millions in states all over the country. But a stalemate in Congress may stave off the pain.

Health Care Ruling Casts Doubts on Billions in State-Federal Funding

By making the federal health law’s Medicaid expansion optional for states, the U.S. Supreme Court has cast doubt on decades of established state-federal programs and billions of dollars in funding tied to them.

Are States’ Unemployment Insurance Loans Dragging Down Economies?

Most states are still paying off those unemployment benefits that went out to millions of those without work during the recession, but it’s the way some are doing it that raises concern.

States Consider Politically Fraught Welfare Waivers

States consider their options — and the politics — of the federal welfare waivers proposal.

Food Stamp Fight on Capitol Hill

Congress is considering dramatic changes in the way states administer their food stamp programs.

Why Are Welfare Rolls Flat, While the Food Stamp Program Grows Rapidly?

Advocates for the poor say welfare programs are ill-designed for hard economic times. Some Republicans, however, don’t see welfare as broken, but instead as a model for other social initiatives.

Competing Globally: Governors Give, Get Ideas

Politicians in hyper-partisan Washington may shun any proposal from across the aisle, but some governors aren’t shy about stealing a neighboring state’s idea and giving credit, regardless of their counterpart’s political party.

Unemployment Tax Cheats on States' Radar

States are beginning to crack down on employers who avoid paying their full share of unemployment taxes through bogus schemes that often leave other employers making up the difference.

Commission Calls for Foster Care Reforms

A panel of child welfare experts today called for a bevy of changes to fix flaws in the countrys foster care system that have allowed children to get stuck in foster care limbo for too long, suffer abuse and neglect and sometimes go missing. The new report targets two key areas as needing improvement: federal funding and judicial oversight.

Panel Calls for Sweeping Foster Care Fixes

The countrys ailing foster care system lets children languish too long in temporary rather than permanent homes and is in need of a two-tiered overhaul targeting federal financing and court oversight, according to a new report by a panel of child welfare experts. But states may be wary to embrace the new proposal wholeheartedly because they will likely need time to examine how the proposed changes would impact foster care funding and flexibility.

Bill Would Help States Fight Unemployment Tax Fraud

A prospective federal law could help states and small businesses save nearly half a billion dollars over the next five years by closing a loophole used by some companies to dodge high state unemployment taxes.

States Struggle to Help Poor Pay Winter Heating Bills

Temperatures are dropping and fuel prices are rising, causing states to worry that some of their neediest residents will be left out in the cold this winter because states dont have enough money to help low-income people heat their homes. An initial sampling of states shows that requests for home heating aid through the federally funded and state-administered Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program could reach an all-time high in 2005.

Budget Ax Hits Medicaid Second Time

January 14 - Halfway through fiscal year 2003, nearly every state has targeted health insurance programs for the poor, elderly and disabled to balance severe budget deficits, and two-thirds of those states are on their second round of such cuts.

House Adopts Stricter Work Rules for Poor

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a Republican welfare bill that would require states to impose stricter work requirements on poor parents, offer new money for marriage strengthening programs and freeze federal funding for cash assistance at 1996 levels.

Human Impact of States' Budget Cuts

Cassandra Skyers used to help needy Connecticut families get health care and food stamps. But by months end, the Bloomfield, Conn., woman fears she herself may be standing in line to see if she qualifies for some of the same state aid she used to distribute.

Commission Launched to Reform Foster Care

Instances of children missing from foster care and suffering abuse and neglect while under state custody should motivate lawmakers to reform failing foster care programs, according to a new commission that plans to come up with recommendations to help improve the lives of foster children.

Accessing Benefits Online Easier Said Than Done

It sounds like a great idea using the Internet to apply for welfare and other social programs. Its not that simple. While all 50 states use the Internet to provide information about their social programs, only a few make it easy for folks to apply online.

Experts Debate Merits of Bush's Block Grant Plan

President Bush has proposed turning at least six existing federal programs into block grants Medicaid, housing for the poor, workforce development, child protection, transportation and Head Start.

Gay Marriage and Death Penalty Rulings Roil States

Americans traditionally turn to the courts to settle battles over divisive social issues, from segregation and civil rights to abortion and assisted suicide. But debates over changing social mores almost always bubble up from state capitals, where even today governors and legislators are confronting such difficult questions as whether to sanction gay marriage or to end capital punishment.

State Programs Offer Alternative to Layoffs

Nineteen states have tailored their labor laws to allow employers to cushion the impact of economic slowdowns on their workers. These so-called work share programs are helping to ease the pain of layoffs.

Welfare Reform in Legislative Limbo

Welfare reform seems to have slipped off the congressional front burner, a situation that may leave states in limbo as the deadline to reauthorize the program approaches. Congress seemed on the mark earlier this year to re-authorize the $16.5 billion welfare reform act, which expires in October. But it now seems preoccupied with other issues such as corporate accounting, homeland security and judicial nominations.

Missing Children Leave Safer Legacy

When California Governor Gray Davis recently announced a new system for notifying the public about children missing and believed to be in danger, he had no idea it would be used so quickly and with such dramatic results.Yesterday (8/1) officials credited the system with helping to find and rescue two girls abducted near Lancaster, California

States Urge Congress to Extend Welfare Funding

With reauthorization of the landmark welfare reform act of 1996 stalled on Capitol Hill, state policymakers and welfare advocates are urging Congress to save the program from the chaos that uncertainty brings by passing a three-year extension of current law.

Welfare Reform: A Record of Pluses and Minuses

What many reformers have long sought -- the transformation of the welfare system from a program of monthly cash assistance to a web of work incentives for poor families -- moved closer to reality last year. Following examples set by Illinois, Maine and others, dozens of states announced plans to tap the pool of federal dollars left over from declining welfare rolls to make new investments in child care, affordable housing, tax cuts and personal counseling for the needy.

Welfare Leavers Find Jobs But Not Benefits, Study Finds

Since the launch of welfare reform, critics have complained that the sole focus of the program is to decrease the number of people on public assistance, but that no one has been tracking what happens to them afterwards. Researchers in Washington State want to change that, and have just released the first year results of a study that will track the experiences of 3,000 welfare-to-work families over five years.

New Welfare Study May Ease Worries About Harm To Kids

Welfare reform has been credited with dramatically reducing dependency on public assistance and increasing work among single women, but a crucial unanswered question is whether the changes help or harm children. A new, first of its kind study may help ease concerns about the possible negative impact.

Washington Covets States' Welfare Money

For the second time in two years, members of Congress want to cut the federal contribution to welfare in order to divert the money to other programs, a plan critics denounce as an attack on the spirit of devolution and an abrogation of the landmark 1996 welfare agreement. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, has proposed tapping unspent welfare money to meet a Clinton administration request for emergency aid, primarily for survivors of last October's Hurricane Mitch. A bill approved by the committee on March 4 would prohibit states from spending $350 million of their current federal welfare allotment until 2001. The bill would also cut $285 million from the food stamp program.

Two Faces of Welfare Reform: More People Work, Some Fall Behind

In the 1996 overhaul of the welfare system, Congress directed states to "end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation [and] work." Since the law was enacted, the Clinton administration and the states have heralded success in reducing dependence as caseloads have dropped 35 percent nationwide. Now, evidence is mounting that many states are also increasing reliance on work. Recent reports from 13 states detailing life after welfare show rates of employment that are, in many cases, higher than were achieved under the old welfare program.

States Advance In Extending Health Insurance To Poor Kids

The Clinton administration announced Tuesday that 47 states have enrolled almost two million children in their Children's Health Insurance Programs, double the number enrolled a year ago. To see the enrollment figures for all 50 states, see the Health Care Financing Administration report. The White House also announced Tuesday that it will ask Congress for an additional $2.7 billion to enroll children in either Medicaid or CHIP.

Income Gap Widens In Most States

Despite modest growth in incomes among the nations' poor in the late 1990s, the wealthiest Americans continued to increase their earnings at a faster pace. A new report released this week breaks down the income gap for all 50 states and finds that the wealthiest 20 percent of American families now earn more than 10 times as much as the poorest.

Clinton Posting Mediocre Domestic Record, Scholars Say

President Clinton sent his budget for the 2001 fiscal year -- the last of his presidency -- to Capitol Hill Monday (2/7), with the expectation that lawmakers will consider a host of spending increases in his favorite domestic programs: public education, health care, middle-class tax cuts and welfare. The Clinton budget, like his State of the Union speech, is expected to be short on grand designs. Many scholars say Clinton's style of incrementalism may deprive him of an enduring legacy. For a review of Clinton's domestic policy achievements, click on

States Scrambling To Help Elderly With RX Costs

The race is on to help the elderly with prescription drug costs. President Clinton, Congress and most state legislatures are competing for the political credit. "A larger-than-ever number of states are interested in looking into this. This topic in past years has not risen to the top five priorities like it has now," says Richard Cauchi, senior health care policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Since Welfare Reform, States Spend Less On Poor

Since the overhaul of the welfare system in 1996, states have cut spending on programs for the poor, a new report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government finds. The budget analysis released Thursday offers the first detailed look at social services spending in California, Georgia, Missouri and Wisconsin since welfare reform. Researchers found that all four states have cut their own spending on programs specifically for poor families. In some cases, they used federal dollars to make up for state budget cuts.

Proposals Giving New Parents Unemployment Benefits Falter

Only a handful of states are trying to take advantage of new federal rules that allow unemployment benefits for parents who temporarily leave work to care for a new baby. Six state legislatures are currently weighing so-called Baby U.I. bills, but few, if any, are likely to pass this year.

Advocates For Poor Impatient With State Welfare Budgeting

Advocates who work with the poor are turning up the heat on the states, accusing them of wasting a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to use their surplus of federal welfare dollars to attack poverty. By October 1999, the states had left $7.3 billion in welfare money unspent in the federal treasury. More than half the states did increase spending significantly in 1999, even as welfare caseloads continued to decline. But a handful of states tapped their federal allotment to replace state outlays.

More States Cut Income Taxes Of Poor Families

A growing number of states are taking advantage of overflowing revenues to relieve the tax burden on poor families, a new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has found. In 1999, fewer than half the states that impose an income tax -- 20 out of 41 -- collected revenues from families earning less than the official poverty line. Since 1991, four states have raised their tax thresholds to exempt these families. Two more, Delaware and New Jersey, will stop taxing poor families over the next two years. Altogether in the 1990s, 19 of the 41 income-tax states significantly cut or eliminated taxes on poor families, the study by the liberal-leaning Washington think tank showed.

Welfare Reform's Unexpected Catch-22

In 1996, some prominent Republican governors led the charge to transfer much of the power over the nation's main anti-poverty program to the states. In return, they agreed to a federal funding cap in the form of an annual 'block grant.' Deficit hawks in the Republican-controlled Congress seized on the offer as a chance to save money. Experts in Washington were predicting welfare costs would balloon, so a ceiling on the federal share would force state governments to come up with the rest. Little has worked out as predicted

Fewer To Get Food Stamps Under New Rules, Critics Say

Under proposed new rules, the federal government risks cutting more families from the food stamp program, which directly contradicts the Clinton administration's oft-stated goal of increasing aid to the poor, critics of the rules change say. The new rules would let states change or drop procedures originally designed to safeguard the rights of food stamp recipients. States would have less obligation to inform recipients of their rights under the program, and they could increase the burden on families to prove that they are eligible.

States Illegally Deny Benefits To Poor, Report Says

A national organization of community groups says tests of four federally-funded social safety net programs exposed many gaps in the delivery of aid to the poor and showed a concerted effort by states to cut the rolls of their anti-poverty programs. The National Campaign for Jobs and Income, a liberal advocacy group, says the states have intentionally and, in some cases, unlawfully erected barriers to keep poor families from obtaining the food assistance, medical insurance and child care to which they are entitled.

States Continue Large Investments In Child Care

As states remodel their welfare systems and budget leftover federal funds -- the aggregate totals billions of dollars --they continue to pour the bulk of their resources into child care. According to the Children's Defense Fund, 45 states decided last year to increase their spending on child care. As well as extending their programs, states also turned their attention to boosting quality.

Millions To Ensure Health Coverage For Poor Go Unspent

The states have failed to spend money set aside specifically to prevent poor children from losing their health insurance as a result of welfare reform. Even as hundreds of thousands were losing their health coverage, millions of dollars in a federal Medicaid transition fund went unused. Advocates for the uninsured have estimated that most of the poor children who lost Medicaid coverage following welfare reform were still eligible.

Americans Concerned About Link Between Health And Environment: Survey

A survey released Sunday shows that Americans believe the government should be monitoring chronic diseases and their links to environmental hazards. The survey was released by Health-Track, a national public health organization funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

New Face Of Welfare: Increasingly Urban, Increasingly Minority

Long before its 1996 overhaul, many incorrectly imagined the face of welfare as an African-American woman in the inner-city. In fact, prior to the 1996 law, white families tended to make up the bulk of the welfare caseload and they were just as likely to live outside the city. A new report from a Washington, D.C. think tank, however, finds that the anti-poverty program's image is now morphing into the one its critics originally saw. Welfare recipients are increasingly concentrated in urban areas and, as a result, they are increasingly likely to be minorities.

States Experiment With CHIP Outreach Methods

Since Congress created the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, states have been trying to provide health insurance to kids whose parents earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance. It has not been easy. Of the estimated 11 million children without health insurance in the United States, only two million were enrolled in state CHIP programs as of December 31, 1999. Using such novel approaches as raffling off a chainsaw and locating signup teams in shopping malls, states are doing everything they can think of to boost enrollment in the program.

States Show Progress Against Child Poverty

Concerted anti-poverty efforts by some states have blended with an unprecedented economic tailwind to lead to the first marked improvements in the lives of poor children in two decades, a new state-by-state analysis of child poverty has found. After skyrocketing in the 1980s, the percentage of children living below poverty fell in all but 15 states in the five years between 1993 and 1998, the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) reports in a study released Thursday.

On The Record: Experts Reflect On Welfare Overhaul

Four years ago today, August 22, President Clinton signed a bill that brought the greatest changes to the nation's welfare system since the government began giving cash assistance to poor families 65 years ago. In interviews with Stateline.org senior writer Clare Nolan, Ron Haskins and Wendell Primus, two leading welfare policy experts, discuss the law's accomplishments and drawbacks so far.

Family Incomes Rise, Poverty Lowest In 20 Years

The long arm of the American economy -- in its ninth year of growth -- has now reached into millions more households, boosting incomes and reducing poverty among all racial groups and particularly among the most vulnerable -- children and the elderly, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

Nation's Poor Families Gain, But Troubles Remain, Study Finds

A study of the economic, physical and emotional well-being of America's families has found no evidence that the push to cut the public welfare rolls has hurt the nation's poor. Recent economic gains, however, have yet to sink deeply into family life, the report found. The privately funded survey by the Urban Institute and Child Trends is one of the most comprehensive attempts to gauge the fallout from recent decisions to shift authority over social programs to the states.

Welfare Rolls Continue to Shrink

Although the pace of the welfare exodus has slowed, more than a million families left the nation's cash-assistance program for the poor in 1999. The number of people that rely on monthly welfare checks from the government fell to 6.3 million in December from 7.5 million in January 1999, the Clinton administration announced Tuesday. Led by declines in California and Illinois, 43 states saw their welfare caseloads drop last year. In California, more than 500,000 left welfare between January and December 1999. In Illinois, another 100,000 abandoned the rolls. Caseloads climbed in seven states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas.

Mayors Release Report On Hunger and Homelessness

Requests for emergency food jumped 17 percent in 2000, while the need for emergency shelter climbed 15 percent, the annual survey of hunger and homelessness by the U.S. Conference of Mayors has found. The increases in demand for both services were among the highest the survey has recorded in the past decade.

New Study Paints Grim Picture Of Lifestyle For U.S. Underclass

A vast national survey of the financial, emotional and mental well-being of American families finds poor children and their parents are at least twice as likely to suffer a wide range of hardships than their wealthier counterparts."Snapshots of America's Families", released this morning by the Urban Institute, also reveals significant disparities in family health across states, with high percentages of households in California and Texas, the nation's two most populous states, in financial and emotional trouble.

Welfare Reform, Two Years Later

The most profound consequence of the 1996 federal welfare law is the steep drop in caseloads in every state. The new rules, combined with the robust economy, have helped states reduce caseloads 44% nationally since 1993. But as families abandon welfare at a record-setting pace, we have only a vague understanding of how they are continuing to support themselves. From a handful of early studies, it appears Temporary Aid to Needy Families, as the current welfare program is called, has made only slight improvements over the old system, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. stateline.org takes an in-depth look.

Health Care in America - Outlook For Change

The nation's economic outlook is bright--unemployment is at an all-time low, incomes are rising, the poverty rate has declined, interest rates have plummeted--yet the number of Americans without health insurance is rapidly increasing. In 1997, an estimated 43.4 million Americans, 16 percent of the population, had no health insurance. That is a 25 percent increase from 1990 when 34.7 million had no health insurance. Among the uninsured were 10.7 million children under 18. stateline.org looks at the situation.

Governors Set The Table For Washington Conference

Education, children's health, welfare reform and public safety top the agenda at the annual winter meeting of the nation's governors, which will take place in Washington Feb. 20-23 in a climate of cooperation and bipartisanship. Mindful of the distrust surrounding politics in the nation's capital in the aftermath of President Clinton's impeachment trial, Republican and Democratic state leaders have chosen "Progress Through Partnerships" as the theme of their four-day meeting.

Health Care Review Infrequently Used in Many States

Consumer clamor for health care reform has state and federal lawmakers scrambling to enact patient protection legislation before the year is out. But in over one-third of the states, laws have already been enacted that have established an independent, impartial process for appealing denials of coverage. The programs are quick, hassle-free and inexpensive, and patients have about a 50-50 chance of getting negative decisions from their health plan overturned. But a Kaiser Family Foundation Report and stateline.org research shows that programs remain obscure and infrequently used

Education and Marital Status Key To Keeping Kids Out Of Poverty

The nation's new welfare program is a first step in improving the financial well-being of many of the nation's poor children, but it will fall well short of moving many of them out of poverty. An analysis of the working poor released yesterday by the Washington research group, Child Trends, finds children whose parents work as mandated by the new welfare law are far less likely to be poor than children in families whose parents are unemployed. But, the Child Trends analysis finds that improving work participation and marriage will not be enough.

Welfare Recipients Need Schooling, Job Aid, Study Shows

To prepare welfare recipients for 21st century careers, states need to expand their welfare-to-work services beyond transportation and child care to include education, careful job placement and subsidized training, a new study by the Educational Testing Service has found. Without additional education and skills training, women moving from welfare to work will continue to struggle in jobs paying poverty-level wages, the report says. ETS, the corporation that directs the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) for college admissions, unveiled details of Getting Down to Business: Matching Welfare Recipients' Skills to Jobs That Train at a Washington, D.C. news conference Wednesday.

Social Security Reduces Elderly Poor By 11.4 Million, Study Finds

One in two elderly Americans would live below the poverty line were it not for Social Security, according to a new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal Washington think-tank. The study, which includes the first state-by-state comparison of Census Bureau Social Security figures, found that the retirement benefit program reduced the number of elderly living in poverty in the United States from 15.3 million to 3.8 million. The state-by-state figures indicate that Social Security benefits lift more than 250,000 elderly out of poverty in 14 states and over 100,000 in 33 states.

Downside Of Welfare Reform -- No Safety Net

Recent reports from 13 states detailing life after welfare show more women are leaving welfare for work. But, some of these states are also finding evidence of lives made harder by the loss of cash assistance. In this second report in a series, stateline.org looks at those who say life off welfare is worse.

National Economic Boom Leaves Many Children Behind

Even though the United States is in the midst of the longest period of prosperity in the nation's history, millions of American children still live in concentrated areas of poverty that remain resistant to change, according to a report released Tuesday morning by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Click on Full Story

States Refine Welfare Programs in 1999 as Pace of Reform Slows

The tidal wave of reform unleashed three years ago has begun to recede as most states this year have refrained from instituting major changes to their programs for the poor and have opted instead for minor refinements. In a number of states, governors have placed increased funding for child care at the top of their agendas. Others are seeking to fiddle with their welfare rules. One state, Arkansas, did implement major new reforms in 1999. In this report, stateline.org looks at state action on welfare in 1999.

GOP Leaders Declare Welfare Reform A Success

Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives took to a podium at the Capitol Thursday to trumpet the achievements of their welfare policies, which they claim have resulted in a profound cultural shift away from a psychology of dependence to "a path to the American dream." They highlighted statistics showing improvements in economic well-being for America's most impoverished families and they claimed the data prove the wisdom of the 1996 welfare law.

More States Requiring Mental Health Benefits For Insurees

More and more states are requiring that health insurers cover the costs of mental illnesses as well as physical ailments, but so-called "mental health parity" laws are not all created equal. The laws exist in 25 states and range from measures that require coverage of all mental health and substance abuse problems -- Vermont has one of these -- to bare bones versions whose scope is limited. One of these passed the Nevada legislature last week and now awaits the signature of Gov. Kenny Guinn. For more information on mental health parity laws, click on

Life for Poor Children Worsens in the Nation's Wealthiest State

More and more children are living in poverty in Connecticut, the nation's wealthiest state. The 1999 Kids Count Data Book, released recently by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, ranks Connecticut 12th in the nation in protecting children. But that ranking has slipped almost every year since 1990, when the state ranked number two. A sharp increase in the percentage of children living in poverty has propelled the decline. In this report, stateline.org looks at Connecticut's widening gap between rich and poor.

States' Children's Health Insurance Programs Get Good Report

Nearly one million children from low-income families are getting healthcare benefits under states' Children's Health Insurance Programs, or CHIPs, according to the first government report on the massive program created by Congress in 1997. In the report, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said states and the federal government have made "considerable progress" getting the program up and running despite a short implementation period and the challenges of establishing programs outside of Medicaid to insure poor children.

Drop in Child Poverty Lags Behind Decline in Welfare Rolls

More and more American families are moving from welfare to work, but they are not making the jump from poverty to prosperity, at least not at the same pace. Fewer young children live in households that rely predominantly on public assistance, while more children have parents who work but are still poor. At the same time, a new report from the National Center for Children in Poverty says, scraping out a living is getting harder. A high school diploma - the highest educational achievement of most Americans - no longer guarantees that a worker will earn enough to escape poverty.

States Forging Ahead On Healthcare Measures

States are way ahead of the U.S. Congress when it comes to setting standards for managed care. Forty three states and the District of Columbia have passed comprehensive patients' rights legislation and three states -- Texas Georgia and Louisiana -- have given health insurance customers the right to sue their HMO. Most states have now completed their regular legislative sessions for the year. For a look at highlights of action on healthcare, click on

Welfare Reform and The Faithful: Compassionate Conservatism in Texas

Sounding as much like an itinerate preacher as presidential candidate, Texas Governor George W. Bush moves from town to town these days spreading the gospel about the power of religious faith to rejuvenate the downtrodden. He's not alone. Vice President Al Gore is singing the same hymn. Religion can be key to helping families escape poverty, both candidates say. Both have endorsed channeling taxpayers' money to churches and other religious groups that help families on welfare. In Texas, Bush has begun to put his faith into action. In this three-part series, stateline.org looks at the widening crossroads where church and state meet in Texas today.

Electronic Benefits For Needy Yet To Deliver On Promise

Thirty-nine of the 50 states have replaced food stamp coupons with credit card-style benefit cards. And most of them now deliver welfare cash assistance to the needy the same way. But so far, say advocates for the poor, the drawbacks of the new electronic benefit system may outweigh its advantages.

Red Tape Causing Medicaid Enrollment Dip, Study Finds

Enrollment in Medicaid -- the nation's health insurance program for the poor and disabled -- has declined in the wake of welfare reform because of eligibility requirements that both beneficiaries and the people who administer the program find too complex and confusing, a new report says. For the first time in almost a decade, Medicaid enrollment for children and their parents began to fall in 1996, dropping by 2 percent from 1995.

First Results of Welfare Overhaul Emerge In 1999

Architects of the nation's new welfare policies declared victory this year. Indeed, much of the news is good. But, critics of the 1996 welfare law have not yet conceded defeat. And reporters who have fanned out across the country to document the reforms are finding a much more mixed picture than governors, congressional leaders or even President Clinton like to admit.

Survey Finds Support for Welfare Reform

Americans generally support recent changes in the nation's welfare system, with most believing welfare recipients should work, as federal law and states now require, a new survey shows. An overwhelming majority also thinks the government should offer the health, child care and transportation services that will make the transition from public assistance into work more successful.But less than half of those surveyed in a poll commissioned by the Kellogg Foundation were willing to pay higher taxes for more services for the poor.

Academic-Business Coalition Unveils Test Of Computer Savvy

Next month, liberal arts students at universities in 23 states who want to pursue a career in the high tech industry will be able to take an exam that will test their computer and problem solving skills. Those who pass will certified by the Virginia Foundation For Independent Colleges (VFIC), a bragging right likely to impress would-be employers.

Nation's Governors Blast House Committee

A U.S. House Committee has pared down the funds used by states for welfare reform by $3 billion and the Governors and state lawmakers are steaming mad. The National Governors Association shot off a letter to the House leadership, charging agreements made between Washington and the states on a number of priority state-federal partnership programs have been violated. The Governors say they are, "adamantly and unanimously opposed to the severe cuts in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program for the year 2000."

Is Federal Red Tape Tying Up Innovative Job Programs?

The federal government has made money available for a new approach to unemployment, but states have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to get it.

Grandparents Need More State Help to Raise Kids

More children are living with relatives or close family friends because their parents can no longer care for them, but most states aren’t doing enough to help, a new report says.

Medicaid Cuts, Welfare Reform Target Poor

The Republican-led Congress sent President Bush Wednesday a package of Medicaid and welfare reforms that will impose tougher work requirements on welfare recipients and squeeze $6.9 billion in savings from the giant health insurance program, in part, by getting poor patients to pay more for treatment.

Feds Pinch State Welfare Programs

Congress has reauthorized the 1996 welfare reform program -- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) -- maintaining historic funding levels, but imposing tougher work standards. Welfare advocates say the new rules will discourage state innovation in work support programs. Supporters say the stricter rules will force states to do what the block grant program was originally intended to do -- move needy families from welfare to work.

U.S. House Votes to Nullify 200 State Food Laws

More than 200 state laws on food safety and labeling -- from Alabama's nutritional standards for grits to the way Wisconsin labels cheese and smoked meats -- will be undermined by a bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday, says a broad coalition of state officials, environmentalists and consumer protection groups. A state-by-state list cites statutes and regulations that could be trumped.

States seek relief from new welfare rules

Facing an October compliance deadline and the possibility of losing millions of federal dollars, governors, legislators and state welfare officials are asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for more time and flexibility to meet new welfare-to-work rules. But even with some wiggle room, states will have to redouble their efforts to meet those rules.

Bright Ideas Compete for Cash

Six state programs, ranging from Maine's comprehensive health care reform to Wisconsin's environmental program for businesses, are competing for $100,000 grants in one of the nation's premiere good government competitions.

States Ranked on Pocketbook Issues

Texans are more likely than citizens in any other state to be living without health insurance. Women in Wyoming have the least earning power compared to men, and more Mississippians on average live in poverty than anywhere in the country.Those developments are part of a snapshot of Americans' economic situation released by the Census Bureau Aug. 29.

States Expand Food Stamp Programs

In the war on hunger, a handful of states have made big strides in getting federally funded Food Stamps to more poor families, while others have lagged behind. Only 60 percent of eligible Americans received Food Stamps nationwide in 2004, but Missouri, Tennessee and Oregon helped buy groceries for more than 80 percent of those with incomes low enough to qualify, according to a new study. California, Wyoming and Massachusetts gave Food Stamps to fewer than 50 percent of their poor citizens.