Suggested Answers to $2.00/Day Quiz No. 2 - School-Lunches - Food-Stamps - Medicaid

[johnkarls]

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A. Cash vs. In-Kind

1. Are our authors clear that “$2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America” means only $2.00 CASH per person per day?

2. And (ref. Q&A-8 of the First Short Quiz), were they clear that 20% of the households in “extreme poverty” ($2.00/person/day or less) did have some sort of housing subsidy -- while the remaining 80% were “couch surfing” with friends/relatives, in a homeless shelter, or out on the street?

3. Are there at least 3 “in kind” (“non-cash”) federal assistance programs benefitting Americans living in “extreme poverty” ($2.00/person/day or less)?


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B. The National School-Lunch Program

1. Was the National School-Lunch Program (“NSLP”) enacted in 1946 during the Truman Administration?

2. Does NSLP provide free or low-cost lunches for economically-disadvantaged children?

3. In the case of children living in “extreme poverty,” would the lunches be free?

4. Did/does NSLP have TWO objectives -- propping up farm-commodity prices while providing lunches for economically-disadvantaged children?

5. Accordingly, in addition to most of the federal assistance taking the form of a cash reimbursement to the schools (or school districts) for each meal served, does some of it take the form of surplus agricultural stocks?

6. Since the federal assistance comprises a reimbursement for each meal served, is it then the responsibility of the school (or school district) to provide lunches within that budget that meet federal nutritional standards, with any cost over-run being borne by the school districts?

7. According to the Congressional Budget Office, did NSLP serve 30 million children each school day in 2014 at a cost of $12.7 billion?


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C. The Federal Food-Stamp Program (aka “SNAP”)

1. Was the original Federal Food-Stamp Program enacted in 1939 as part of FDR’s “New Deal”?

2. Did the original Federal Food-Stamp program last only 4 years?

3. Was the Federal Food-Stamp Program revived (after a few pilot programs 1961-1964) on a permanent basis under President Lyndon Johnson by the Food Stamp Act of 1964?

4. Like the Federal School-Lunch Program, did the Food-Stamp Programs (original, pilot and final) have TWO objectives -- propping up farm-commodity prices while providing food for people living in poverty?

5. Were food stamps, for most of the program’s history, effectively “special purpose currency” and, as such, printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing with the same care that it prints America’s paper money?

6. In recent years, have the physical food stamps printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing been replaced by the equivalent of Debit Cards?

7. Did the 2008 Farm Bill change the official name of the Federal Food-Stamp Program to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”), even though virtually all of the news media continues to refer to the program as the Food-Stamp Program?

8. Unlike the Federal School-Lunch Program which provides meals to school children, is there a theoretical possibility that the Debit Cards can (and the Food Stamps before them could) be used to buy food following which the impoverished person barters the food for other things?

9. Did Bill Clinton’s 1996 Welfare Reform place significant restrictions on the Federal Food-Stamp Program causing participation rates to plummet?

10. Nonetheless, did the U.S. Census Bureau report that the Federal Food-Stamp Program (aka SNAP) cost $70.9 billion in FY-2016 and supplied approximately 44.2 million Americans with an average of $125.51 per person per month in food assistance?


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D. Medicaid and Hospital Emergency Rooms

1. Was Medicaid enacted as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society Program” in 1965?

2. Was Medicaid designed to provide free medical care to Americans living below the “poverty line”?

3. Should Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” Medicaid for Americans living below the “poverty line” be confused with Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid (in participating states) to cover the next-lowest economic tier of Americans?

4. Does the promise of free medical care under Medicaid actually mean impoverished Americans are merely ELIGIBLE for free medical care, as distinguished from actually RECEIVING free medical care?

5. Exclusively of Medicaid, did President Reagan sign The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 require that all patients arriving at a hospital emergency room must, REGARDLESS OF ABILITY TO PAY, be screened for an emergency condition and, if an emergency condition is found, the patient must be treated and stabilized before being transferred to another facility or released (42 U.S. Code Sec. 1395dd)?

6. Is it difficult if not impossible to estimate the cost of providing Medicaid and Emergency-Room care for Americans living in “extreme poverty” ($2.00/person/day or less) because (A) the cost of the Emergency-Room portion is borne by zillions of individual hospitals across the country, and (B) the Medicaid cost of “extreme poverty” Americans is difficult to ascertain from total Medicaid costs?


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E. Other Significant In-Kind (Non-Cash) Benefits for “Extreme Poverty” Americans?

[johnkarls]

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This is an administrative post to preserve a sensible ordering of postings.