A groundbreaking health care clinic in Grand Rapids expects to save millions of dollars a year by targeting a chronic cause of high medical costs: patients for whom the emergency room is a virtual revolving door. Based on early results, the director of the Spectrum Health System clinic projects savings of $12 million to $15 […]
Children & Families
About 1 in 5 children in Michigan live in poverty. Bridge will explore the reasons behind this disturbing result and the ideas to address it.
Posted inChildren & Families
$400 prom dress, in shades of gray
The headlines practically write themselves. “Taxpayers on the hook for $400 prom dress.” “$2,000 cheerleading camp on the state tab.” Scrape away the easy sensationalism, and the story is more complex. The Michigan Department of Human Services paid almost $400 for a prom dress for a foster care teen — one of several eye-popping expenditures noted […]
Posted inChildren & Families
More families set to lose welfare assistance
Needy families who kept their cash assistance after last fall’s massive welfare reform shouldn’t get too comfortable. Almost 500 more families per month are projected to lose cash assistance during the second year of reform, which begins in October of this year. According to Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget proposal released Thursday at the Capitol, 7,130 […]
Posted inChildren & Families
27 Mich. counties dodged welfare cuts
How big of an impact has welfare reform had on you and your neighbors? It depends on where you live. According to the Department of Human Services, 15,799 fewer families were receiving cash assistance at the end of 2011 than were receiving assistance in September, before the state imposed a lifetime limit on welfare. Here’s […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Welfare reform leaves families without a net, and off the radar
Three months after the launch of an aggressive welfare reform, Michigan has kicked more people off the dole than expected and saved the state millions of dollars. How the approximately 15,000 families cut off from cash assistance are surviving, though, isn’t as clear. We may never know. The state isn’t monitoring the impact on those […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Daily life gets harder for three families
Nearly 16,000 Michigan families were banned from cash assistance last fall, in the biggest one-day reduction of welfare recipients in the state’s — and possibly the nation’s — history. Did those families blend into the work force? Did they lose their homes? Did they find help from charities, churches and nonprofits? Over 12 months, Bridge […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Food stamps returning for some needy families
Thousands of Michigan families who were expected to lose food stamps will now keep the assistance or get it back next week. How many families? No one knows. Which families? No one knows that either. The Department of Human Services, which was very efficient at removing families from food stamps in October, is struggling to […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Michigan zigs, the nation zags
Michigan is clamping down on food stamp recipients while many other states are easing requirements. A report produced by the Michigan League for Human Services circulating among Lansing policymakers reveals that a number of states have dropped asset tests for food stamp recipients in the wake of a tough economy. According to the report (no […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Racial divide persists in Michigan's infant mortality rate
For nearly 30 years, Michigan has been reducing its infant mortality rate. Still, as of 2009, a black infant in Michigan is three times more likely to die than a white baby, according to the latest statistics from 2009. In fact, the mortality rate for black infants in Michigan for 2009 (15.5 per 1,000 live […]
Posted inChildren & Families
The popularity of manning up
Rep. Ken Horn knows how to get people’s attention – for better and worse. Horn is the author of Michigan’s new welfare reform, which cuts recipients off cash assistance after they have received 48 months of benefits in their lifetimes. Because the law is retroactive, more than 11,000 families will lose their cash benefits the […]
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