Prepared originally for the Appropriation Committees of the Legislature, this study focused on the effects of changes in Social Security legislation on the Department of Public Welfare. Federal legislation replaced public assistance payments for the financially needy aged, blind, and disabled with a system of supplemental security income (SSI). An amendment to the legislation provided that states must agree to maintain the income of each December 1973 aged, blind, or disabled recipient at his December 1973 income level. If the agreement were not reached, the state would lose federal matching funds for Medicaid.
Because some 21,000 Mississippi SSI recipients would have received less income under this legislation, the state was required to pay them a supplemental income. Costs would have diminished each month as recipients were phased out of the program. Failure by the state to enact legislation to appropriate the funds for the supplemental income would have resulted in a loss of Medicaid benefits to approximately 320,000 persons receiving over $100 million in medical benefits. The state could have elected to pay the supplement, at an approximate cost of $920,000, or could have contracted with HEW, which would have administered the payment at nominal cost to the state.
The report also analyzed the two options that the state may use in determining eligibility for Medicaid benefits. Performance audits of the regional welfare offices and selected county welfare offices were included as well as a budget analysis.
For a paper copy of this report, contact PEER by telephone at 601-359-1226 or by e-mail at reports@peer.ms.gov.