Posted on 01/27/2016 12:34:01 PM PST by Kaslin
As of December 2012, the total population of the United States -- including members of the Armed Forces stationed overseas -- equaled 315,255,012, according to the Census Bureau's estimate.
At some time during 2012, according to a study the Congressional Research Service published last month, approximately 134,800,000 people qualified for one or more of "nine major need-tested benefit programs" and approximately 106,000,000 actually received benefits from at least one of them.
That means about 42.7 percent of the U.S population was eligible for one or more of these government benefit programs at some time during 2012 and about 33.6 percent actually received a benefit.
The CRS Report -- "Need-Tested Benefits: Estimated Eligibility and Benefit Receipt by Families and Individuals" -- looked at eligibility and receipt of benefits from: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly known as food stamps), the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, the refundable Additional Child Tax Credit, Supplemental Security Income, housing assistance, WIC (Women, Infants and Children), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Child Care and Development Fund and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
Importantly, the study looked at Medicaid separately and did not factor Medicaid into its overall estimates of how many people were eligible for and how many people actually received need-tested benefits during the year.
The report presented its first key finding in response to this question: "How many people are eligible for need-tested benefits, and how many actually receive them?"
"In 2012," CRS said, "the total number of people who were estimated as eligible for at least one of the need-tested programs examined in this report was 135 million, residing in 58 million families, or more than 4 in 10 persons among the nation's non-institutionalized population. In that same year, the total number of people who were estimated to have actually received at least one of these need-tested benefits totaled 106 million, residing in 42 million families. Many families that are eligible for benefits do not receive them, although the rate at which eligible families actually receive benefits varies by program. In 2012, an estimated 70 percent of eligible persons received SNAP benefits; however, an estimated 28 percent of eligible persons received TANF, and an estimated 17 percent of eligible children received child care subsidies from the CCDF."
In Figure 1 of its report, CRS specifies that 134.8 million people were estimated to be eligible for at least one of the nine programs in question and in Figure 2 it specifies that 106.0 million were estimated to actually have received benefits from one or more of them during the year.
"An estimated 106 million persons (1 in 3 persons in the population) actually received benefits from one of these programs in 2012," says the report's summary.
The CRS made its estimates using Census Bureau survey data and a microsimulation model aptly called the Transfer Income Model.
"While the federal government supports a number of need-tested benefit programs, uniform data on eligibility, participation, and benefits across programs are generally available only from household surveys," said the report. "However, respondents from those surveys tend to under-report receipt of need-tested assistance. Thus, this report combines information from a Census household survey with estimates from a microsimulation model, the third version of the Transfer Income Model (TRIM3). The need-tested benefit programs examined in this report are limited to nine cash or in-kind transfer programs and tax provisions for which eligibility, benefit receipt, and benefit amounts are estimated by TRIM3."
Why was Medicaid not factored into its main conclusions and numbers? A section of the report titled "The Special Case of Medicaid" provided an explanation.
"Medicaid is not included in the central analysis of this report. Rather, it is discussed separately (in Appendix B) for several reasons," said the report. "TRIM3 did not include estimates of Medicaid enrollment and the value of benefits for 2012. This report focuses on receipt of need-tested benefits in 2012. However, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) made substantial changes to Medicaid eligibility, which became effective in 2014. Thus, the picture of Medicaid today and in future years might be significantly different from that of 2012."
Obamacare, in fact, increased eligibility for Medicaid. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude, it is a force that will tend to drive up the number of people eligible for and receiving "need-tested" government benefits.
Four years ago -- before full implementation of Obamacare -- welfare programs had already established a widespread culture of dependency in this country. The question now: When will it become irreversible?
40... or 47% ... It’s up there.
Get to 50%, vote lavish bennys, tax workers to penury. No more workers, no more bennys That’s a plan.
But Obama says that the economy is doing great!How can this be?
Once the Dems got a good chunk of the Middle Class hooked on Welfare, Freedom was doomed. Everyone gets a handout.
My tagline, soon to be a reality if it isn’t already. I suspect we’ll know for certain come November.
I qualify, I don’t take...but I also still have to pay.
Yeah, now that is the a real racket. I always love these reports!
As my tax person told me last year...yeah...go get some of that 0bamacare stuff or Medicaid...at least you earned it.
Very sad state of affairs.
Romney vindicated.
especially if i’m in it!!
seriously though, if the number is that high, quite a bit of whites have to be one the dole too.
for the elderly absolutely. but under 65?
i wonder where all these people are coming from, what groups?
Caliph Baraq proved in 2012 that entitlements buy national elections, no matter how bad the economy or foreign policy.
Medicaid and Social Security were not included in the analysis. Wow. Had they been included, probably a majority of Americans would have been shown as at least qualifying for, if not receiving, money from the feds. This may explain why an avowed socialist has a decent shot at being the Presidential nominee of a major party. Meanwhile, across the Pacific, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China is reported to be on the verge of appointing a free market devotee of Reagan and Thatcher as head of financial regulation in the PRC. The world has truly turned upside down, and I fear that the American people no longer have the toughness, determination and self-respect to turn it around. We are no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave. We have become a nation of envy and entitlement.
The ability to qualify for aid is staggered by income. I qualify for certain benefits, but not others because I earn too much.
We’re essentially handing out enough for people to live comfortably on, not subsistence level. Drop the amount of aid down and force people to chose to work and pay taxes. It will actually do a world of wonder for the economy and funding our bloated government.
Yessssssssss
we can have a 99.5% unemployment rate and that moron would still claim the economy is doing great
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought you couldn't have anything worth over $2500 to qualify for medicaid. That means no $2500 in the bank. No car worth $2500. No house of course. They can search your property for anything worth $2500 to disqualify if they want too. At least that was my understanding.
Certain states you can qualify based only on your household income.
Arkansas under the new rules income below $16243.00 is Medicaid eligible. Single person.
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