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Better bill dies, than benefits: Move toward work requirements for Medicaid fraught with unknowns

Some say, today’s Legislature also works in mysterious ways. Take for example HB 3136, relating to relating to applying for a federal waiver to implement Medicaid work requirements. The bill would have required able-bodied adults receiving Medicaid benefits to work, participate in workforce training or community service, or attend a drug treatment or recovery program for at least 20 hours per week. According to the Department of Health and Human Resources, about 159,000 West Virginians are enrolled in Medicaid expansion. The bill was introduced a mere week before it died when it ...

P-o-l-i-t-i-c-s does not spell relief: Legislature works in bipartisan fashion to ensure medical cannabis available July 1

Most Americans today live in states where marijuana is actually legal. That is, either for recreational use (10 states) or only for medical purposes. Come July 1, West Virginia will be among the latter category, along with 32 other states that have approved comprehensive public medical cannabis programs. Last week, HB 2538 breezed through the Senate Judiciary Committee with only one No on a voice vote of its 17-member panel. It advanced from the 100-member House in mid-February with only a handful of no votes (89-7). It is scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor this week where it ...

Don’t let world get us wrong: Legislature still has time in this session to start getting some things right

It almost looks like it’s too late to call on the world to not get us wrong. After all, West Virginia’s seat of state government seems as if it cannot help but make national headlines these days, for all the wrong reasons. Despite our state’s reputation for being a little rough around the edges — its roads, its one-horse economy, etc. — we take pride in our state Capitol, among other things. Not only does it feature the highest state capitol dome in the nation, it’s filled with marble walls, a massive crystal chandelier and handsome legislative chambers. Yet, during this ...

Letters to the editor: March 3

Musical chairs no way to run a government I am getting increasingly worried about the turnover in leaders of our government: The Cabinet and other Cabinet-rank offices. President Trump promised to select the “best and the brightest” for these positions, and to “drain the swamp.” So far in two years, the president has achieved “the highest turnover rate [for these offices] in recent history.” As a professor who worked in a large institution for several decades, I know it would have made me very nervous if those in charge of the top executive positions like president, ...

Letters to the editor: March 2

WVU administration’s stand on bill appalling WVU’s administration must forcefully ally itself with WVU faculty and students to act decisively to stop the campus carry bill (HB 2519): WVU should move to curtail the nationally renowned football and basketball seasons until loaded lethal weapons — killing machines — are banned from college classrooms, dining halls, residence halls and campus-wide. WVU’s administration possesses big weapons. It needs to use them to stop the insanity of loaded lethal weapons in classrooms. It remains disgusting and derelict that the full force of ...

Funding levels stuck in the past: As aging population grows in state, senior services shrinking for lack of money

Many who age well do so because they have to take care of themselves. But let’s face it, much like it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a community to care for its aging population. Not only to create sites that offer the opportunity for catching up with old friends, meeting new ones and engaging in social activities. But to also provide for congregate meals — those that are served in community and senior centers, churches or senior housing facilities. There’s also the need to assist seniors who have functional needs, such as with personal care, mobility, ...