Gov't Assistance: WIC, food stamps

[Bethany1]

The other problem is that schools get rewarded for how many kids are on free/reduced lunches via grants and aid so they don't bother to check if you qualify. That's why you see moms with SUV's getting aid. If kids were eating home lunches, the schools don't get the aid and they lose out on that money.

When it comes to daycare, the same is applied. They get government aid for letting low income families have their kids there.

It also depends on how honest the people processing the applications are. With quotas to fill it's easy to just pass them through w/o verifying the information. Some people in Omaha got in trouble for doing that recently.

Food stamps can easily be exchanged for goods which is why they have started going to a debit card of sorts. There is a work around for every government assistance program that people have figured out.

DH said the value of a car doesn't matter anymore as the rules have changed so that could also be why you have parents with SUVs getting reduced/free lunches.

Then there's the opposite end of the spectrum of where doctors/hospitals don't want anything to do with Medicare/Medicaid and fewer and fewer doctors are now. They don't get reimbursed enough to make those on it worth their time. When I was on it for a short time years ago my neurologist said he wouldn't take me anymore and I was on my own for meds. Depakote was 220 a month w/o insurance. I took it every other day to make it last longer. The doctor that was going to deliver my baby didn't want me as well. Thankfully DH got a better job with insurance and it all worked out. Even with insurance, I continued to take my medication every other day which really defeats the purpose of having it in the first place as I wasn't seizure free during that time.

The system is flawed but it's what we have. There is no easy fix to it.

[Crankin]

All of my clients are on most of the benefits mentioned. While I don't agree with some of the choices they make in spending their money, it was heartbreaking for me and a colleague to bring an emergency food ration to one of them, who has a family of 6 kids. This is an example of how a family can spiral downward. They are married. Kids are well spaced, but all have some kind of learning or behavioral issue. Mom and dad are former addicts, but have been clean for 20+ years. Both had well paying jobs, despite lack of education. Dad was arrested for a trumped up child sexual abuse charge, stemming from when he was 20 and the girl was 16, about 6 years ago. They lost their section 8 house in a decent suburb, kids were removed from the home. They had to move to a local city, in a dangerous neighborhood. The kids came back quickly, but dad had to work under the table. A couple of years ago, he got hurt, and of course with no recourse, since it was under the table, he had to sue his employer. They are living on disability benefits (his, hers, and one of the kids).There is never enough food, and mom volunteers at the food pantry to get help above the EBT card. Exercise is on my client's treatment plan; that is how some people get a free or reduced payment for the Y. The government does not pay, the Y gives scholarships.
I thank G-d I live in Massachusetts. These people have good medical care, many going to the same doctors I brought my own kids to. The dental and eye benefits stink, but they deal with it. I wouldn't have my job without our health care system here; my position is based on 90% part of the health care initiative.
Some of those people driving around in fancy cars get their money from drug deals. There's a whole economy based on selling EBT cards. Yes, there is abuse, but generally most of these people are honest and living in a way none of us would wish for.

[shootingstar]

As for medical care, this is one area I was truly grateful when I was unemployed: generally speaking, the employed and unemployed Canadians, can visit the doctor and get treatment in Canada.

You do need to have health card which you cannot apply unless you show proof of permanent address in Canada, have a social insurance number (which requires proof of residency/citizenship), etc.

What people are forgetting, is that there is a large group of unemployed (the majority probably), who still pay taxes to the govn't annually, as they should like everyone else.

I had no guilt to use any of the government services: I was paying taxes faithfully to the authorities. My taxes provide services....should I ever need to use them which I did need them.

[Irulan]

Shootingstar, let's not even go there - the vast difference in US and Canadian health systems....