Human Services Doesn’t Know Where It’ll Cut
To fill Hawaii’s state budget gap, Gov. Neil Abercrombie is relying on welfare and Medicaid cuts. But the department responsible for coming up with those budget savings says it doesn’t know where it’ll get the money from.
The says it is already running lean despite greater need for social services. That means any further cuts will likely have hard-hitting impacts for the poor on welfare and Medicaid.
Abercrombie’s State of the State address Monday included few details beyond saying that rising health care costs and a lack of federal funds mean the state will scale back on Medicaid and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
“We stand behind what Governor Abercrombie said in his State of the State address,” Toni Schwartz, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, told Civil Beat. “This is a very difficult decision-making process and we are still working out how we will find cost savings while helping the most needy in our state. At this time, the Department of Human Services is reviewing and analyzing the programs to make a fair and just decision to balance the needs of the communities while fulfilling the critical mission of our department to serve the most vulnerable and needy in our state.”
The department is the state’s third-largest in terms of spending, with a $2 billion budget in the current budget year. Schwartz said the department does not have a timeline on when these cuts will be identified. She said the savings would be applied to the upcoming 2012 and 2013 budget years.
Here’s a look at those two programs.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
TANF is a federally funded program that is designed to support low-income working families. It provides monthly cash benefits to qualifying families for food, clothing, shelter and other essentials, and imposes a five-year time limit. The program’s costs in Hawaii, about $98.9 million a year, is funded through a federal block grant.
The Human Services department says it’s currently handling about 9,500 TANF cases per month.
Nationally, other states have had to trim back their TANF benefits as federal stimulus support comes to an end. For example, Washington, D.C., has decided to phase out benefits for poor families that haven鈥檛 achieved sustained self-sufficiency by the end of five years. South Carolina has decided to reduce cash benefits by 20 percent, and California has temporarily eliminated child care subsidies under the program.
Medicaid
Medicaid is handled by the Department of Human Services’ Med-QUEST division. The Med-QUEST program has a $1.7 billion operating budget, representing three-fourths of the department’s budget.
The program provides health-care services for low-income adults and children through contracts for managed care health plans as well as making payments on behalf of Hawaii residents who meet eligibility requirements. As of December, the program had 267,000 recipients, or almost one out of five Hawaii residents, up 14 percent from 235,000 recipients in 2009.
