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Breakdown by Category 82,679,000 Medicaid51,471,000 Food Stamps22,526,000 Women, Infants and Children Program20,355,000 Supplemental Security Income13,267,000 Public Housing or Housing Subsidies 5,442,000 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families 4,517,000 Other Forms of Federal Cash Assistance Population Estimates (2013 estimates) California 38,332,521Texas 26,448,193New York 19,651,127Florida 19,552,860 Those four states have a population of 103,984,701. Those on welfare nearly totals that amount. Full Time Employment BLS figures show 115.735 million "usually" working full time at the end of 2012. There are currently 118.489 million "usually" working full time. Obamacare Welfare Expansion Inquiring minds may be asking "How did Obamacare effect welfare numbers?" Let's take...

Since October, 155,000 New Mexico residents have joined the state’s Medicaid rolls, pushing total enrollment to more than 630,000, or nearly a third of the state’s population. On top of that, 410,000 New Mexicans are enrolled in Medicare, the federal health care program for the elderly. Together, total enrollment in those two federal programs are more than 1 million, or half of the state’s 2.1 million population. ... “It’s shocking, and when you add that to the outmigration of people and the lack of economic growth, it’s almost an incentive to stay poor,” said retired University of New Mexico economics...

The White House has rejected a request to publicly disclose documents relating to the kinds of security software and computer systems behind the federal health care exchange website on the grounds that the information could "potentially" be used by hackers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services denied a Freedom of Information Act request made late last year by the Associated Press amid concerns that Republicans raised about the security of the website, which had technical glitches that prevented millions of people from signing up for insurance under ObamaCare. In denying access to the documents, including what's known as a...

House Republicans on Friday accused a top Obama administration health official of telling staff to delete an email related to the healthcare law’s rollout last fall. In a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, the Republicans point to an Oct. 5 email from Tavenner to staff about how to handle calls from people applying for ObamaCare. In the first line of the email, Tavenner writes “please delete this email but see if we can work on call script.” Republicans in their letter ask why Tavenner wanted the email deleted, and whether she has asked for other...

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is getting more active in Republican primary races as the August 26 election day approaches. Brewer will hold a fundraiser for Mark Brnovich tonight at a restaurant at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa. Brnovich — the former state gaming director — is challenging embattled Attorney General Tom Horne in the Republican primary. (SNIP) The outgoing governor has also endorsed former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith in the gubernatorial primary, and her camp and political groups are also lending help to Republican lawmakers who backed her Medicaid expansion last year. Part of that effort involves getting more...

Next week I'm scheduled for a cervical spinal fusion that costs upward of $100,000, but I won't be paying for it. Like 50 million other Medicare recipients, I will receive the medical care I need more or less free of charge thanks to Medicare. It's something most seniors take for granted -- a benefit we believe we're entitled to because, after all, we paid Medicare taxes all our working lives. But as it happens, those taxes aren't nearly enough to pay for the benefits we receive from the system -- at least for most of us. Despite the fact that...

The cost of providing free taxpayer-funded coverage to Bay Staters unable to sign up for Obamacare because of Massachusetts’ disastrous website problems has soared to $173 million, according to a new Patrick administration report. Some 251,280 Bay Staters are now on the free transitional coverage — basically Medicaid — marking an increase of about 50,000 people since April that one watchdog found alarming. “There should be a red siren going off for state budget writers and taxpayers about the cost of this, and yet there seems to be very little alarm,” said Joshua Archambault of the Pioneer Institute. “There will...

The inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services released a report highlighting problems verifying eligibility for federal health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.Here are five issues the IG found in place as of Feb. 23:1. Fraud could be significant. The audit found the federal government has been unable to resolve 2.6 million out of 2.9 million “inconsistencies” in the information provided by people who applied for health care subsidies. In other words, it could not verify the data provided by people seeking subsidies.2. Most inconsistencies were about citizenship and income. The vast majority of the...

BeneStream, created and backed by labor experts, is looking capitalize on an "intentional crack" in Affordable Care Act language by helping companies enroll low-income workers on Medicaid. BeneStream will capitalize on a subscription service to employers that will analyze the pay of every employee, and then offer to enroll low-income candidates into Medicaid. Between 20% and 40% of employees at companies in industries like hospitality and home health care will qualify for Medicaid enrollment. "It's both good policy and good business," said Andy Stern, a BeneStream board member and a former president of the Service Employees International Union. Both Messrs....

I need help and advice from my fellow freepers. The situation is this: recently, son and wife had a baby. Her health care covered their family and all expenses, but they couldn't afford a baby sitter, even on their combined salaries so she had to quit, so son quit a job which he loved and they moved to be near us, He lined up a job relatively quickly, but it is seasonal and no benefits. It's meant to tide them over until he gets a better job. Baby is past due for her checkups (thank goodness she's healthy). So son...

The Government Accountability Office has released a shocking report on Medicaid waste. They found that $14 billion had been improperly paid to managed care organizations (MCO's) who work with state Medicaid agencies to service eligible clients. Washington Examiner: The "size and diversity" of the MCOs have put both state and federal governments at odds on how to oversee the payments, the report said. Specifically, the wrong payments made were for treatments or services not covered, not necessary, or billed for but never provided, GAO found. States that expand Medicaid programs under Obamacare will receive a 100 percent reimbursement from...

The White House will be so disappointed. Obama officials were really counting on McAuliffe to make this Medicaid expansion happen in good time, and McAuliffe in turn was really counting on his boozing-and-schmoozing skills to translate into his own made-up version of bipartisan governance. He has so far been remarkably unsuccessful at persuading either Republican legislators or Virginian voters to come around to his way of thinking on the proposed expansion, and there’s been some speculation that McAuliffe might keep up a budget standoff that could lead to the shutdown of the Virginia state government this summer — but...

RICHMOND— Gov. Terry McAuliffe plans to expand Medicaid by executive action, he said Friday, sidestepping a Republican-controlled General Assembly that has blocked expansion through legislative action. McAuliffe also said he will veto sections of the state budget, including language meant to block expansion by fiat. His administration is looking at a number of options - which the governor did not detail - and expects to have a formal plan by September. The move leads Virginia into complex legal ground on arguably the most divisive political issue in the state. The governor said he'll allow most the spending plan to become...

irginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) on Friday said he would sign the state’s two-year budget but veto an amendment that would prevent him from expanding Medicaid under ObamaCare. McAuliffe plans to move forward with an expansion of Medicaid in his state under the new healthcare law. He also will scrap a proposed legislative commission on Medicaid reform, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The Virginia Democrat has ordered Secretary of Health and Human Resources Bill Hazel to propose a Medicaid expansion plan by Sept. 1. McAuliffe promised he would expand Medicaid when he was running for governor. “We have the right...

Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter, running to be Louisiana's next governor, is leaving the door open to a possible expansion of the state's Medicaid program to cover more of the working poor, as allowed under the federal health care law. Vitter said Monday that he's not opposed to the expansion if Louisiana can improve the performance of its Medicaid program and if the expansion doesn't draw state resources away from other spending priorities like higher education.

U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services disclosed that 6 million of the 8 million people who signed-up for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will be receiving healthcare from Medicaid that is so affordable it is free. The revelation that seventy-five percent of the expansion of health insurance is Medicaid comes just 48 hours after the Department of Health and Human Services said many of the other 2 million that had “purchased” insurance on HealthCare.gov“ may have received greater subsidies than merited or were allowed to purchase plans for which they were ineligible.” Given the huge influx...

WASHINGTON -- With Virginia Sen. Phil Puckett's resignation on Sunday tipping control of the chamber, state Republicans didn't waste any time. The Washington Post reports that Republicans on Monday have forced Democrats to agree to pass a state budget without accepting the federal government's offer of a Medicaid expansion, dealing a blow to one of Gov. Terry McAuliffe's signature initiatives.

Conservatives in the Ohio House this week blocked a move widely viewed as an attempt by Governor John Kasich to set aside money he could later spend on Medicaid expansion without legislative approval. The version of House Bill 483 (HB 483) passed by the Ohio Senate included a last-minute change to move as much as $300 million in surplus state revenue to the state Medicaid Reserve Fund. Legislators feared this was an effort by the Kasich Administration to circumvent the General Assembly for spending on the Obamacare Medicaid expansion when an existing appropriation expires in mid-2015. ... Kasich, a Republican,...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Two years after a 33-year-old mentally disabled man died at a state institution in Queens, and one year after his sister filed a lawsuit accusing the staff of killing him, New York officials have sent her an $11.67 million bill. The claim against Rasheen Rose's estate cited his total Medicaid assistance from Aug. 6, 2002, through Aug. 6, 2012, the day he died. A spokeswoman for the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, which runs the center, said Wednesday officials were following federal Medicaid obligations in seeking reimbursement. "Not doing so would be a violation and...

Four years after its passage, Obamacare has now been largely implemented, and millions have had their coverage disrupted. For years, the administration has propagated a number of myths about Obamacare. Some have already crumbled, and others will fall as Obamacare continues to change the American health system.Myth No. 1: If you like your health plan, you can keep it. Despite President Obama’s promise that “If you like your plan, you can keep it,” about 6 million people have already been notified by insurance companies that their policies are being canceled. That number will grow. Currently, about 19 million people have...