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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Study: Medicaid is a Vital Insurance Source on the Frontier

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012   

CASPER, Wyo. - Small towns are increasingly becoming reliant on Medicaid.

A new study from the Center for Rural Affairs calls Medicaid a "vital insurance source" in rural Wyoming - and there are several reasons why, according to study author Jon Bailey, the center's director of research and analysis.

"Rural households, rural families have, on average, lower incomes, and they also have lower rates of employer-provided health insurance. Medicaid has really become the only health insurance program that's available."

While some view Medicaid as "welfare," Bailey says, he found that about 65 percent of families using the coverage have at least one family member in the workforce. He adds that Medicaid is a critical piece of the rural health-care system which serves everyone, because program money is a significant source of funding for health-care providers and industry jobs.

"Probably a lot of those hospitals, a lot of those doctors, a lot of those clinics would not be open if we didn't have strong Medicaid programs."

Bailey says he found that Medicaid coverage was most often used by children, low-income Wyomingites with disabilities, low-income seniors and pregnant women.

The full study, Medicaid and Rural America," is online at cfra.org.


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