2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines

2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia

Family Size	Gross Yearly Income	Gross Monthly Income	Approximate Hourly Income
1	$10,400	$867	$5.00
2	$14,000	$1,167	$6.73
3	$17,600	$1,467	$8.46
4	$21,200	$1,767	$10.19
5	$24,800	$2,067	$11.92
6	$28,400	$2,367	$13.65
7	$32,000	$2,667	$15.38
8	$35,600	$2,967	$17.12
add'l	+$3,600	+$300	+$1.73

Source: Federal Register Vol. 73, No. 15, January 23, 2008, pp. 3971-3972. Monthly and hourly data calculated by Oregon Center for Public Policy and rounded to the nearest dollar and cent, respectively.

WV House of Delegates creates Select Committee on Senior Citizens Issues

A one-year committee was created by resolution of the House of Delegates to have jurisdiction over senior citizen issues. The committee is chaired by District 28 Delegate Thomas W. Campbell (D - Greenbrier). The legislature's webpage for the committee is here, and you can find the list of members there and committee agendas, when they become available.

WV Legislature in session, how to keep up on bills which may affect seniors

Our state unit on aging, the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services (BoSS), sorts through the every piece of legislation coming out of both House and Senate to identify which bills may impact senior West Virginians. You can read a weekly report from BoSS listing those bills, what they are about, who sponsored them, and where they are in the legislative process by going to this section of their website and clicking on the Weekly Legislative Update. It's a .pdf file that is 15 pages this week.

You can then go see the actual text of any bill that strikes your fancy by going to the WV Legislature's website page called Bill Status. You can search by bill number, words in the text, or even browse lists of bills subject, date, house, etc.

Then of course you can take the opportunity to let your legislators know what you think about the bills they are considering. The legislature's website offers several ways for you to identify your representatives and get their contact info (review names from a list of all members, click where you live on a state map for senate or house, pull down names or district numbers for house or senate, etc.). Any delegate or senator worthy of the office will welcome informed input from a constituent like you.

Longterm Care Planning Toolkit from AoA

Here's a link to a longterm care planning kit I recently discovered from AoA. You have to put your ZIP code first, then click Download, and you get a 27 page .pdf file, only 2 MB, with some questions to ask yourself and resources to consult and steps you can take.

Beware that first and foremost the toolkit pushes longterm care insurance. I don't think LTC insurance is a reasonably affordable option for many senior West Virginians. I also think that many senior West Virginians have a thing for insurance, they really like having it and they tend to trust that it will take care of everything. Whether it will take care of everything really remains to be seen regarding longterm care. The policies are fairly new in this market, and we haven't seen enough people make use of the benefits yet to see whether they really cover what you need and want when you actually get to the point of needing the benefits. It's a much more complicated concept than, say, homeowners insurance or car insurance.

Excellent WV resource database

The Mountain State Center for Independent Living has an extensive resource database (almost 2000 entries) at www.mtstcil.org/resources/search.php. You can inter some search parameters and get lots of results which include a brief line or two about the resource, and snailmail, email, phone, and fax contact info.

2008 State Legislature Calendar and Info online

The 2008 WV Legislative calendar is available online now at the legislature's website. The information packet detailing the members and committees, as well as a variety of state agency information, is also available as a 32 page .pdf here.

Legislative Audit Report Released on A/D Waiver

In 2006 it got harder to be be determined medically eligible for the Aged and Disabled Medicaid Waiver program in West Virginia. Increasing numbers of new applicants were being denied eligibility, and increasing numbers of beneficiaries of the program were being thrown off or getting levels of care reduced because they were failing their redeterminations under the PAS 2005. Some of the beneficiaries had been on the program for many years. Concerned citizens organized, the media took notice, a class action lawsuit was filed (Fleshman v. Walker), and the West Virginia legislature asked for an audit of the situation.

Finally on Monday, January 7, 2008 the auditor's report was published. You can find the complete report here on the legislature's website. It's a 28 page .pdf file. Here also is a brief article in the Gazette about the report.

Most advocates believed that the changes were intended to save the state money by reducing the number of people the program served and the levels of services they received. This report supports that conclusion.