Stimulus Package - Designed to Help Poor & Unemployed - Screws Family Out of Insurance Coverage/Food

[K Gardner]

Outrage isn't strong enough a word to describe what I am feeling right now. Did the State Government KNOW that this would happen? I have to believe they did, for at one time the Governor of the State of Tennessee was threatening to refuse stimulus money for the unemployed. He had a change of heart. Perhaps someone "ran the numbers" and showed them how many millions of dollars would be saved by screwing the already screwn.

My brother lost his job of 15 years last month due to the recession and lay-offs. He also lost his medical coverage. They have no other source of income. He is looking for work, but went to file for unemployment in the interim. The maximum one can draw in the State of TN is $275/wk. That impoverishing number also qualified him for Food Stamps and State Insurance. He has Berger's disease, his wife has medical problems and his daughter is autistic. All require expensive medication and doctor visits monthly. This was NOT an outcome they wanted, but NEEDED in order to be able to eat and live until such time he is able to go back to work.

Per the Most Wonderful Stimulus Package, designed to give the unemployed a bit more to live on, his unemployment check last week increased $25.00/wk or $100/month.

Today, they got a letter from the State of Tennessee saying because of THE STIMULUS MONEY, they no longer qualify for State Insurance coverage and their Food Stamp benefit will be cut IN HALF.

So, over $100 month given per the Stimulus Package, they are losing ALL MEDICAL COVERAGE and $200/month in Food Stamp benefits. They now make too much money to get any help from the State.

My brother is a proud man. He never wanted help from the state, but until he finds another job he needs to feed his family and they need medical coverage. They now have nothing, save $25.

Has this happened in other states? Does anyone know any avenue to address this? You think Obama knows what this stimulus has done to the unemployed in Tennessee? He has already talked to Appeals and they say there is NOTHING that can be done. He now makes too much money to get any help.


:grr:

[Taverner]

1. Christfuck!

:grr:

[K Gardner]

2. I think my heart has stopped beating. Thanks for sharing the outrage :-)

[madrchsod]

3. i knew this was going to happen and yes it`s happening all over this country.

we applied for heating assistance and my wife made 5 dollars to much. she could have cut back her hours for a month to qualify but then we could`t pay the mortgage...

[K Gardner]

12. I understand your dillemma. They have BARELY been making the mortgage payment, only

because they were getting help with food and medicine. Now, they'll have to choose whether to eat, or buy medicine, or have a roof over their heads.

[terisan]

4. Contact Congressional Rep asap-Dem or Republican and ask them to fix it. There will be

many issues like this due to haste in passing legislation.

[K Gardner]

8. As soon as I calm down a bit, if I ever do, I'm calling our REPUBLICAN congressman and

the Governor's office, and I guess letters to the editor and calling TV Stations in the area.

This HAS to be fixed.

[terisan]

19. Will the new federal subsidy for Cobra help them in the meantime or is that already

factored in?

[K Gardner]

21. We haven't gotten that far yet.. previously, they could not afford Cobra.. so will look into that,

thanks !

[jannyk]

5. k&r I'm too angry to write a coherent response - sorry eom

[stillcool]

6. I've always made too much..

as a waitress to qualify for anything. Perhaps there are other programs? I know getting any assistance is a full time job in itself. Sounds like he needs to stay on the phone, until he gets the help he needs.

[MonteLukast]

7. OMG! Who made that decision?

Was it somebody at the state level?

I'd better not have been built into the stimulus itself.

[K Gardner]

9. No, per the State of TN, the MOST one can make to qualify for medical care and

maximum food benefits is... $1100/month.

They now bring in $1200/month. He offered to give it back, they said NO.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. Then the state should raise the limits and quickly! Also make it retroactive. nt

[MonteLukast]

26. How about an exception for federal stimulus money...

... when reporting income in the state of TN?

The way things are right now, that defeats the whole purpose of the stimulus money.

I swear, this decision looks like a computer made it. Just plug in the figures and see the boolean results, no human judgment involved.

[napi21]

10. My dear Aunt was only getting a small check from Social Security.

She was getting $5.00 a month too much to qualify for food stamps or welfare! She lived in subsidized housing, and had no assets! If I remember tight, her total income each month was $538.00.That was all BEFORE the stimulus package too!

[terisan]

24. Economist Galbraith is calling for Social Security increases for poor-he sees it as

a great permanent stimulus for the economy and he wants to head off the new attempts to cut social security from Treasury.

What happened to your aunt was a disgrace.

[trashcanistanista]

11. This is criminal and needs to get out on the airwaves now.

If it was built into the stimulus it is disgusting.

[Epiphany4z]

14. They should contact there worker

in ohio if you over by some you can pay a little to keep the state health stuff...I think at least for the kid...also there may be some other programs a worker can point them too. good luck.

[tonysam]

15. State Welfare Goes By Income, I am Sorry to Say.

I was on food stamps and received energy assistance for about three months last summer--unnecessarily, I might add because my goddamned union head lied her face off about my being able to receive unemployment benefits when I was wrongfully dismissed from the school district--but when I did receive UI, it was the maximum benefit of almost $1600 a month and therefore placed me way above the $800-a-month cutoff for a single person to receive welfare in Nevada.

I am sorry for your brother, but there isn't one single thing he can do about it.

[MonteLukast]

33. Then make a stimulus exception in the laws.

Get the TN state legislature on the line stat.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. I doubt it is occurring across the nation because of the variation in public assistance between

states. Tennessee is 3rd. from the bottom with maximum weekly unemployment. Only LA, AL, and MS are lower.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/20/national/a140117S46.DTL

Based on that, I'm surprised that Tennessee would have a state insurance program besides Medicaid. Although all states have some health coverage for kids (SCHIP).

The Food Stamp thing doesn't compute. The Food Stamp Program is now called SNAP and the same income guidelines apply to the lower 48 states.

http://www.workworld.org/wwwebhelp/food_stamp_income_tests.htm#Food_Stamp_Income_Tests_130

With at least 3 in the family, the gross income can be as high as $1907 and net of $1467.

Sounds like a Tennessee thing to me about cutting the food assistance in half.

[OHdem10]

17. This is how the GOP have been able to keep some working people

in their fold. People who cannot get needed assistance resent the
way they are treated. Vote Tax cuts with the GOP. They believe
they would never receive any help. This is why they believe
Welfare is wrong and why they stick with Republicans on this

We call it voting against their own interest. They believe they
are screwed.

[inna]

18. this is just criminal. while the financial industry gets hundreds of billions.

this makes me SO mad and disgusted.

we live in a criminal plutocracy.

:grr:

:grr:

:grr:

[ejpoeta]

20. they need to change the requirements up so that people on the edge don't get kicked off like that.

This is the problem I see with these programs. It's hard to get off of them because if you make just a small amount more, then you lose all benefits full stop and end up worse off than you were before. Contact your congress people. Contact SOMEONE and perhaps the media. We have stations here that do stories all the time on residents issues. Maybe they could do a story on this and get the officials to have to do something. Usually they won't do anything unless someone makes them.

[K Gardner]

22. Just spoke to my Congressional office local and D.C. - neither office knew ANYTHING about

the effect the stimulus would have on state benefits and say that it will "have to be addressed at the state level." Have also called/written the newspaper and local TV channels.

[sinkingfeeling]

23. I think your outrage is directed at the wrong thing. Tennesee cut over 200,000 from their

TennCare program in 2008. Whereas, the 'stimulus' package provided 65% of the cost of COBRA to the newly unemployed.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5491337

"Last year, Tennessee dropped some 200,000 people from TennCare, its health care plan for the poor and uninsured, and reduced benefits for hundreds of thousands more."

[K Gardner]

27. You're correct, absolutely. I've worded poorly, but the outrage is totally directed at State

and TennCare - as an ER nurse, I've seen the devastating effects of the disastrous TennCare policies and slashings. Thanks for the redirection !

[sinkingfeeling]

28. Thanks. Your title seems to be blaming the stimulus package and people are responding to that. In

my other post, I pointed out that your state ranks almost on the bottom for providing unemployment and public assistance.

[Duer 157099]

25. I doubt this will be helpful, but he'll get a 2nd chance to elect COBRA coverage

whose premium will be reduced by 65% - look at the thread below for some links etc. I know, he probably cannot afford it even at the discounted rate, but still wanted to mention it just in case:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5329133&mesg_id=5329133

[K Gardner]

29. UPDATE: Finally got in touch with someone at TennCare who knew what they

were talking about and they say "stimulus money is EXEMPT from determining eligibility for medical coverage". They are going to try to fix it but believe the local Human Services has incorrectly counted the money as income on god knows how many people.

Although, very enlightening to have spoken to my Governor's office. Phil Bredesen's official statement/response was : "Our hands are tied, it was Obama's Package". Also encouraging to note that our local congressperson was equally unable to address the issue.

[Brucie Kibbutz]

30. When did governor Bredesen ever consider refusing

stimulus money? If he did, this is the first I've heard of it. He told the governor of SC to send whatever funds they refused over to us in TN. Why would he do that and then refuse funds set aside for his own state?

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/feb/23/if-sc-doesnt-want-stimulus-money-bredesen-would/

Another thing, how did they ever manage to get on TennCare? I've never been able to get it and there's been some times where I was unemployed, uninsured, and practically homeless. They laughed when I tried to apply for it. The woman I talked to about it said single mothers are about the only people that can get TennCare these days.

[K Gardner]

31. I did a post on this a while back.. here is the link.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/02/dem_guv_may_refuse_some_stimul.html

It was only the Unemployment part of the package he was going to refuse. This was confirmed by his staff today when I spoke to the office. Evidently, he decided to take it.

I believe you are eligible for TennCare if you are unemployed, have a child and make less than $1100/month. I may be wrong about that, but he had no idea he was eligible for it. When he went to DHS, they are the ones who put him on the TC rolls.

[Brucie Kibbutz]

32. that is quite a surprise... thanks for the info

I thought he was smarter than that. FWIW, the county I live in has an unemployment rate of 15.6 percent. There would be all kinds of hell raised if they held back on any unemployment.

BTW, glad to see your brother got ahold of somebody that could straighten out the mess he got caught up in. The way they run this state, it's a fucking miracle he could even get someone to speak with about it.