Molly Messick was StateImpact Idaho's broadcast reporter until May 2013. Prior to joining StateImpact and Boise State Public Radio, she was a reporter and host for Wyoming Public Radio. She is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning approved a $1.9 billion Medicaid budget
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning voted in support of a $1.9 billion Medicaid budget.
That appropriation includes $1.5 million to reverse two key Medicaid cuts approved last year. It will cost $900,000 to rectify the dual choice problem, according to Division of Medicaid estimates. Reinstating preventative and restorative dental services for adults who are eligible for an institutional level of care through Medicaid will cost about $640,000.
Rep. Shirley Ringo (D-Moscow) favors those changes, but said they don’t go far enough. “I think we’re dealing with a squeaky wheel here, because the disability community really had a lot of advocates to speak up for them,” she said. “I still have concern for people who don’t belong to that category and do not have the money to afford to visit the dentist, when needed. I think we all recognize the value of preventive care, so i think there’s a little more work to do in that area.”
Andrew Sum is the director of Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies
In reporting StateImpact’s recent story on Idaho’s high teen unemployment rate, one of the people I consulted was Andrew Sum, of Northeastern University in Boston. He’s an economist, and an expert on the youth labor market. Here, he explains the magnitude of the shifts Idaho has seen in terms of teen employment.
Q: First, you say we should look at the teen employment rate rather than the unemployment rate. Why is that?
A: When we’re trying to judge how well any group is doing in the labor market, the employment rate measure is a better measure of understanding how many individuals are able to get work. Continue Reading →
Young workers’ wages have fallen off in the last ten years, a period that a new report terms the “lost decade.” D.C.-based think tank the Economic Policy Institute analyzed entry-level workers’ earnings going back to 1979.
“From 2000 to 2011, a period of disappointing overall wage growth, wages actually fell among every entry-level group regardless of education,” report author Lawrence Mishel writes. For high-school-educated men, entry-level wages fell by nearly 9 percent over that period, according to the study’s analysis. For high-school-educated women, the decline was slightly higher, at 9.2 percent. Continue Reading →
The House Health and Welfare Committee has given unanimous support to a bill that would reinstate key Medicaid services, in the wake of deep cuts last session.
“Since the legislation was passed last year, we have learned more about the impact of some of these cuts on certain populations,” Chairwoman Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) said, introducing the measure.
The bill, HB 609, would reinstate preventative and restorative dental services for adults who are eligible for an institutional level of care through Medicaid. It would also ensure that people with dual diagnoses will not have to choose between receiving skill training for mental illness management or for a developmental disability. Continue Reading →
Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee.
A ranking House Republican is sponsoring a bill to reverse key cuts in Medicaid services. Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee. That committee oversaw the state’s process of reining in Medicaid services as the state’s economy suffered the effects of the downturn. Rep. McGeachin now says lawmakers made one cut based on an inaccurate understanding of how certain services were provided, and what they entailed.
“Our Medicaid program is quite intricate,” she said, “and it’s really impossible for us on the committee to understand all of those codes.”
McGeachin’s bill would allow adult Medicaid recipients to again receive skill development services related to both developmental disabilities and mental health problems, as long as those services are not duplicative. That would reverse a cut that forced Medicaid recipients with dual diagnoses to choose which kind of skill development services to receive.
At Boise High, a binder that a few years ago was full of job listings for students now has barely any use. A career counselor says local businesses used to call all of the time looking for students to fill part-time jobs. Now, those calls are rare.
The economic downturn hit young people especially hard. Today’s young adults are the “boomerang generation,” given how many have landed back home with parents. For teens, jobs are even harder to come by, and few places are tougher than Idaho. Last year, the state’s teen unemployment rate stood at 30 percent, one of the highest rates in the nation. It’s a number that represents lost opportunities.
It’s a weekday evening, and high school junior Igor Autin is kicked back in his living room, doing something he does a lot: playing video games. “This is Halo Reach,” Autin says. “It’s kind of the biggest game that’s out.”
Stephen Berry says he's been looking for work nearly every day for months now, with no luck.
StateImpact‘s story on teen unemployment will air tomorrow morning on KBSX. Ahead of that story, we’re doing short profiles of a couple of the teenagers who agreed to be interviewed. One of them is Stephen Berry, 18, a senior at Frank Church High School.
For Berry, wanting to work isn’t about wanting to earn spending money, or saving up for later on. It’s about wanting to help his family. “At my house, we have four people going off of one income,” he says. “We barely make it by.” Berry’s step-dad works at a furniture store, and his mother has an illness that keeps her from getting a job. Berry’s younger sister just turned 16, and is trying to find work. Continue Reading →
StateImpactis reporting on teen unemployment this week, which has meant talking to a lot of school counselors and high school students. We’ll be wrapping their stories into a radio feature early next week, but in the meantime, we’re introducing a couple of the teenagers here.
First, meet Igor Autin. He’s a junior at Boise High School, and he’s been looking for a job for months now. For Autin, work isn’t absolutely necessary. He has supportive parents and a comfortable home — but he doesn’t get an allowance, and he would love to go to college out of state. Plus, he knows that work experience now might help him get a better job later on. Continue Reading →
Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) is said to be working on legislation to reverse a number of Medicaid service cuts.
Draft legislation to reverse some of the Medicaid service cuts approved in recent years has been introduced in a House committee. That’s according to the Idaho Council on Developmental Disabilities. Marilyn Sword, the group’s executive director, says Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) has been working on the proposal.
Rep. McGeachin, who chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee, could not be reached for comment.
Less than two weeks ago, however, she urged the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee to reverse specific cuts. One was the cut that forces Idaho Medicaid recipients with dual diagnoses to choose between skill training to manage a mental illness and skill training to manage developmental disabilities. Another was the cut that eliminated preventative and restorative dental services for adults with disabilities. Continue Reading →
After a foreclosure, this California home stood vacant.
The national foreclosure system appears to favor borrowers whose home loans total $1 million or more. That’s according to a new analysis for The Wall Street Journal.
“Nationally, borrowers with loans of at least $1 million were in default for an average 792 days last year before banks repossessed their homes, according to an analysis by data provider Lender Processing Services. For loans under $250,000, the wait stood at an average 611 days—a difference of about six months.” — The Wall Street Journal
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