Many Families Turn to Public Services in Recession

Updated: January 23, 2012

While the recession is officially over, many Pennsylvania families are still struggling to make ends meet. The state unemployment rate is high, overall work hours are down, and more people are losing their health insurance.

As a result, more Pennsylvanians are turning to the Commonwealth for help with basic necessities and health care for themselves and their children. The tables below show how public services are filling the gap created by the economic slowdown in the private sector.

Cash Assistance, Food Stamps, Medical Assistance & CHIP

The following table tracks the growing demand for public health care and human services.

Health and Human Services Enrollment Numbers
  2000-2001 2007-2008 December 2007 December 2011 % Change Since Recession Began Dec 07
Cash Assistance 286,432 265,936 264,925 288,882 + 9.0%
Food Stamps (Households) 345,068 551,097 548,518 N/A* N/A
Food Stamps (Individuals) 754,554 1,171,858 1,168,067 1,827,134 + 56.4%
Medical Assistance 1,433,227 1,915,407 1,893,949 2,181,399** + 15.2%
Medical Assistance (Children) 713,997 980,575 970,816 1,073,064** + 10.5%
Children’s Health Insurance Program 104,564 167,583*** 166,151 194,439 + 17.0%
Medical Assistance for Workers with Disabilities N/A 9,923 9,698 26,416 + 172.4%
Source. Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (See the data)
 
* DPW changed the way it reports some data, effective November 2011, making this information unavailable online.
** Overall Medical Assistance enrollment was reduced by more than 152,000 people between August and December 2011. Medical Assistance enrollment for children was reduced by more than 88,000 between August and December 2011. For more on this large scale reduction in MA enrollment, read this news article.
*** CHIP Program was expanded in the 2006-07 Fiscal Year.

Share of Pennsylvania Population Receiving Benefits (December 2011)
  Number of Residents % of Population
Cash Assistance 288,882 2.3%
Food Stamps 1,827,134 (individuals) 14.4%
Medical Assistance 2,181,399 17.2%
Medical Assistance for Workers with Disabilities 26,416 0.2%
Source. Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare

AdultBasic

More than 41,000 Pennsylvanians have lost their adultBasic health insurance coverage with the expiration of the program on March 1, 2011. 

AdultBasic, created in 2002 under former Governor Tom Ridge, provided affordable basic health care to Pennsylvanians between ages 19 and 65 earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level.

Read more about the funding crisis and Governor Corbett's decision to allow the program to end.