The Republican megabill making its way through Congress would make significant changes to benefits programs like Medicaid and SNAP, which would affect Alaskans across the state.
"Alaska Division of Public Assistance"
USDA fines Alaska $11.9 million for failing to ensure SNAP recipients are eligible
For the second year in a row, Alaska’s so-called “payment error rate” for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program topped 50%. Also for the second year in a row, Alaska’s error rate is the highest in the nation at 60%.
A new lawsuit over Alaska’s Medicaid backlog asks a judge to order faster processing
Last month, state officials told Alaska Public Media more than 15,000 Medicaid applications were caught in a backlog.
15,000 Alaskans are caught in Medicaid backlog, but care continues, state says
Alaskans applying for Medicaid, the government-run insurance program for low-income people, are facing long wait times as the Division of Public Assistance struggles to keep up with demand.
Alaskans again wait months for food stamps; workers union blames policy choices
The state got the backlog down to 6,000 people in August, but it has swollen to more than 12,000 since.
As Alaska works through Medicaid renewals, only about a third of people are staying covered
In two months, 13,000 Alaskans have lost coverage for paperwork problems — enough that the federal government has asked the state to pause dropping people for paperwork reasons because too many children may be losing coverage.
A group of attorneys and volunteers helped nearly 2,000 Alaskans get food stamps during backlog
At the height of the backlog in February, the organization got nearly 500 calls for help with food stamps; this month they’re down to 166 requests. Last year at this time, they got five.
New data shows measurable progress on Alaska’s food stamp backlog
Thousands of people are still waiting for food aid, but the trend is positive.
State roughly halves the number of Alaskans waiting on food aid, but more than 8,000 remain
The partial progress highlights the scale of the backlog.
State’s fix for Alaska’s food stamp backlog misses the mark, insiders say
Gov. Dunleavy is poised to sign a bill that will put millions of dollars into a fast-tracked solution to fix the state’s months-long backlog. But advocates and insiders say the emergency funding doesn’t go far enough — and the biggest problems are going unaddressed.