The Missouri Department of Social Services has announced it will scale back on its participation in a contract to move welfare recipients onto federal disability. Republicans at a House committee hearing this week expressed concerns that shifting recipients from a state-run program that requires employment to a federal one that does not could leave them permanently trapped in poverty.
DSS officials now say the program will only focus on Medicaid recipients who are seriously disabled, and will not include foster children or welfare recipients able to work. House Speaker Tim Jones praised the move.
“There are calls on both sides of the aisle that we have to get control and have to rein in the massive amount of inappropriate spending in welfare entitlement programs,” Jones said.
State welfare recipients who move to federal disability may qualify for the federal Medicare program. DSS officials testified this week that their contract with Boston-based Public Consulting Group could save the state $28 million a year.
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