Zech. 3:1-10
Rev. 4:1-8
Matt 24:45-51
From the morning Psalm:
The earth, O Lord, is full of your love;
Instruct me in your statutes.
Then I got this notice, from NH Children's Trust, Inc., about a proposed change here in New Hampshire. If we are trying to listen to God and our world this Advent, with a special emphasis on the voice of Occupy Wall Street, this seems to me to resonate with the concerns they raise about not paying attention to those most vulnerable.
This doesn't seem to help make the world full of God's love, nor to mirror God's statutes:
The Rules are about to Change
The Medicaid Rule Change
The rule change
affects the extent to which Medicaid is used to provide services to
pregnant women and children "for the purpose of improving birth outcomes
and parenting skills and ensuring the health and well-being of the
child." The proposed rule change further restricts eligibility in one
program to only first-time pregnant women who are at least 19 but under
the age of 21. Of even greater concern is the limitation of services in a
second program, called Child/Family Health Care Supports (CFHCS). Let's
examine this more closely.
The proposed rule
change limits the amount of Medicaid-billable services that can be
provided to a CFHCS-eligible family to the equivalent of three hours per
year. That averages one hour of service every four months. To be
eligible for CFHCS, the family must be struggling with at least two
primary challenges such as mental illness, substance abuse, a finding of
child abuse and neglect, homelessness. Or, the family must face at
least three secondary challenges such as limited English proficiency,
single parenting without social supports, lack of a high school
education, premature or low birth weight baby, documented family trauma
(family death, domestic violence, parent was a victim of child abuse,
violent crime), grandparents raising a child, family income less than
125% of federal poverty level ($27,938 for a family of four). To
"maximize savings", the provision of three hours of service per year
must include the assessment that documents the family's needs to receive
services.
This means, of the
allowable three hours of service per year that is supposed to "improve
birth outcomes and parenting skills and ensure the health and well-being
of the child" for these challenged families, most will be used simply
assessing and documenting the extent of the family's needs. The premise
would be laughable except for the disaster it represents for families
across the state. If you pay local property taxes, you may see big
increases when these unserved kids and families hit the school system.
Virtually every other
developed country invests heavily in maternal and infant health and
early childhood while we propose heading in exactly the opposite
direction. These countries who invest in early growth and development
are outscoring our children, having better health outcomes, and a
healthier economy. See chart below.
Chart taken from:
The State Budget Savings
So, how much will the
state save through this rule change that affects more than a thousand
children? The state saves precisely $387,750, roughly the cost to
incarcerate twelve people for a year. But let's not forget that the
state also forfeits an equivalent amount of federal aid through this
rule change, so the true total is more than three quarters of a million
dollars ($750,000) that will no longer go to community based agencies to
provide services to families. A rule change that
- increases unemployment,
- forfeits federal funding (these are YOUR taxes that you already paid that will go to another state instead of coming back to New Hampshire),
- downshifts and increases future costs to local communities, and
- abandons families trying to raise children in difficult circumstances
is not a positive development for New Hampshire.
What You Can Do
You have until December 30 to contact Michael Holt to suggest changes to the proposed rule change at Michael.Holt@dhhs.state.nh.us,
or show up at the public hearing on December 20 at 1 pm at the DHHS
Brown Building Auditorium at 129 Pleasant Street in Concord. The text to
the full rule change is available at http://www.dhhs.state.nh.us./
Remember, too, that
the rule change was proposed as a result of the cuts made by our
legislators. To make a difference in the life of a child and to ensure
the quality of life we all expect to have as NH residents, you need to
speak up, submit a comment to the Medicaid administration, and hold your
legislators accountable at the polls.
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