Lawsuit presses case against state(Maryland) for food, medical aid

[JonLP24]

Miracyle Thompson, a pregnant Baltimore County mother of two little boys who have sickle cell disease, was skipping meals and battling with angry doctors over unpaid bills. Her husband's sales job wasn't bringing in enough money to support the growing family. Seeking help, she applied in February for state food and medical assistance.

Federal law requires that those emergency benefits be approved within 30 days. A month ticked by, and then a letter from the state Department of Human Resources arrived: "An agency delay has occurred beyond our control." She'd have to keep waiting. By late April, she and a group of attorneys for the poor decided to sue.

Thompson is one of thousands of Marylanders who have waited longer than the legal limit for assistance approval. As of March, there were about 7,100 overdue medical assistance applications from children and parents, and 4,100 backlogged food assistance requests, according to the most recently available data from human resources.

The bad economy has exacerbated an already overburdened approval process. Assistance offices are being flooded with more needy applicants at a time when the state's dire financial straits prompted a state hiring freeze that until recently deprived the department of the workers necessary to ensure timely approval.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.assistance12may12,0,5174141.story