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Medicaid Drug Tests?

January 31st, 2011

To no one’s surprise, a new rumor started on Facebook. It did not take long for the status that read “Kentucky just passed a great law. To be eligible for food stamps, Medicaid, or cash assistance for your children or yourself, you have to pass a DRUG test. Now every other state should do the same! If you agree re-post.” to flood my Facebook home page. After I did some investigation (mainly just looked at snopes.com) I found that no such law had passed, but this law has been proposed to the Kentucky state legislature’s House of Representatives. The proposed bill states that once a year anyone who is eligible and applies for government living assistance will have a drug test once a year. After I read about this bill I wondered why this has not passed and why the state of Texas has not thought of this.

I think that Medicaid is a great thing. I am not on insurance and there is no way I could pay the bills if something happened to me or my children. I have been on pregnancy Medicaid with two of my pregnancies. When you are on Medicaid you are asked if you have or do use illegal drugs, and you talk to a social worker, but they just mark down what you say without testing you. The drug test would be helpful in this situation, not only as reliable source of the situation that this child will be brought into, but also this can show doctors the proper treatments to give to these pregnant women.

The purpose of cash assistance is to help people in desperate situations get back on their feet. While on the cash assistant programs they require that each person applies for jobs on a regular basis. Well if they did a drug test before people are accepted for the cash assistance the program would know whether they would even be hired, since most jobs require a drug test.

I think that it would be great if it was true if the rumors were true, and if at least one state would start doing drug tests to be allowed to even apply for government assistance. Many of these government assistance programs work along side of Child Protection Services; you would think that these programs would want to know the situation of the home in more detail than what the parents write on the application. I have nothing against people getting on government assistance and I understand that people run into hard times, but it bothers me that people take advantage of these services. Texas really needs to do something different when it comes to applying for these services and I think a drug test would be a great new law.

WIC Low Income Government Assistance

January 26th, 2010

WIC

WIC stands for Women, Infants and Children and is a program designed to help pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants and children under 5 with nutrition. There is a daily clinic in Tyler and mobile clinics at other locations in our area once a week too.

To qualify for benefits, you have to live in Texas and have a low income for the number of people in your household. Benefits are given after a financial assessment has been made. There are details on the WIC website and you can phone the WIC hotline to find out if your family is eligible (details on www.dshs.state.tx.us/wic)

They have information in both English and all materials are also available in Spanish.

In my experience, the ladies who run the WIC program are really helpful. It would seem that this is not the easiest of programs to administer but they do it with a smile. We received help when I was pregnant and had a child under five. We were given a health assessment and nutritional advice as well as the food package. This came in the form of a ‘gift card’ which could be redeemed at most local superstores. Specific food types and in some cases, brands, are listed for you to purchase. You receive an information sheet and a video to watch to help you get started and in most supermarkets the products you can choose are labelled ‘WIC’ to help you as you shop.

At one of my WIC appointments the nutritionist identified that my daughter was iron deficient. I guess I wasn’t surprised as she is a terrible eater! But I was glad to have all sorts of ideas, suggestions and recipes to help. She was also given a children’s book on each visit which is I think is great. Any help with encouraging literacy has to be good for kids in East Texas.

We had milk, eggs, cereal, peanut butter, bread, rice, beans, fruit and veg. It was a real help to our family budget. I was also offered breast feeding support and even an electric pump to aid feeding. I have to say I am really impressed that they would spend the time and money to help Moms breastfeed. We all know it is the best start for a baby to have it’s mother’s milk but it is not always an easy choice to make and sustain. Any support is really valuable. It was also good to know that my baby was on target on the growth chart. I continued to receive a food package as I was nursing him and once I began to feed him solids, I was given formula and baby food and cereal on my card each month.

I think it is well worth applying for the WIC program if your income is low. You do need to prove your income twice a year and visit the clinic at least every three months but that is a small price to pay for the assistance you receive. And don’t worry, there is no stigma attached to receiving WIC as there are so many families in East Texas who receive it. It is not just for single parents or those out of work. A lot of families here are living on a single income because Moms bravely chose to stay at home with their children. In this community there are also a large proportion of families who have lots of children or extended family living with them and so are eligible for benefits even though their income is not low. I have always been treated with respect at the Lindale WIC office and have no hesitation in recommending their services to others.