TennCare currently has $1.1 billion in its reserves and expects it to cost $500 million of those reserves over the next year as it redetermines Medicaid eligibility for those additional 500,000 members who joined the plan over the past three years.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, states were not allowed to remove those who are no longer eligible for the program as previous. Starting on April 1, states must start that redetermination process and will have a year to complete it.
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Participants of Tennessee’s Families First Program will receive ‘extra support’ this holiday season, according to the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS). On Monday, TDHS announced that all households enrolled in the state’s assistance program as of December 1st will receive a one-time additional payment of $500 on their existing Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards beginning on that same day.
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Democrats in the Pennsylvania General Assembly hope to increase monthly welfare benefits in Pennsylvania, reasoning that payments under the federally funded Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program have stayed flat since the 1990s, falling well behind inflation.
Legislation being drafted by state Sen. Katie Muth (D-PA-Royersford) and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-PA-Philadelphia) would increase Pennsylvania’s TANF benefits, which average $403 per month for a family of three in most counties.
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How is Tennessee’s economy doing? A lot of it is doing well when compared to the COVID-19 lows on many economic indicators such as employment, a new Sycamore Institute report shows.
But other items are troubling, such as there being 40% fewer small businesses in Tennessee as of late June data than there were before the pandemic. That’s considering that 99% of private sector workers in the state work for small businesses, defined as companies of 500 employees or less.
“There are a lot of things going on here,” said Brian Straessle, the Sycamore Institute’s Director of External Affairs. “There isn’t like one nice neat narrative of the economy right now.”
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and members of the state’s Department of Human Services last year granted millions of dollars for social services, and on Monday TDHS officials said they won’t give any to refugees or illegal immigrants. The Nashville-based Catholic Charities of Tennessee last year received $7.3 million in state grant funds to expand social services to 10 Middle Tennessee counties. Part of the organization’s model is based on liberal services performed in Nashville.
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Six Democrats in the Georgia General Assembly filed a bill this week that calls on state officials to expand access to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. According to that bill, HB 741, those Democrats also want to make eligible people convicted of felony drug charges. The bill also would, if enacted into law, increase the lifetime maximum for TANF benefits and stipulate that the government could disregard a person’s assets when determining eligibility.
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Gov. Bill Lee has unveiled legislation to address learning loss among Tennessee students caused by pandemic-related school closures and extended time away from the classroom.
A series of Lee-backed bills include proposals to provide summer school and after school tutoring, require school districts to use phonics-based literacy curriculum and suspend test-related accountability measures for teachers and schools this year. Lee said he’ll also propose pay raises for teachers, but those details have not been released.
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When state lawmakers return to Nashville next January, one topic for consideration will be what to do with Tennessee’s $741 million surplus funds from a welfare program for the working poor – a larger surplus than any other state in the nation.
The surplus of funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare program, also known as Families First, was first reported by the Beacon Center of Tennessee and the Tennessean last year. The program is administered by the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS).
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TennCare is by far Tennessee’s largest entitlement program in terms of caseload and cost to the state.
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