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New Mexico $24,000
California $31,000
North Dakota $33,000
I don't think it's the freezing cold as much as North Dakotans have a strong ethic and prefer that resources be spent on the disabled, people with health conditions they can't control or senior-citizens.
People up north because of the small population know a con-artist when they see it. Multi-generational thug gangster wanna-be mentality isn't trendy in North Dakota like New Mexico or much of California.
I am all for Medicaid and Medicare but states like New Mexico unfairly get ultra-high reimbursement rates so they don't have to allocate their share of tax revenue like North Dakota.
The weather absolutely does play into it. There are a lack of homeless shelters. In fact, if someone comes up here unprepared with no job and no housing in the winter the typical response in my area is to send them back home. If the person drove, they're given gas cards and money. If the person came on the train, a ticket back home is purchased. A lot of people also come here from other states to work and quite a few don't make it through the winter.
Also when the oil boom was in full swing the seniors who were living on a fixed income in the western part of the state were pushed out of their homes. One of the larger assisted living homes in the area actually booted all its tenants and the building was sold to a hotel chain. Most of them ended up going east, some leaving an area they had lived in their entire lives and leaving kids and grandkids behind.
I have to be honest, I sort of hope Medicaid goes to a per-capita block program. Where Medicaid is doled out on a per-capita basis tied to inflation.
That would greatly benefit states like North Dakota and Iowa which expanded Medicaid but have very low enrollments due to their economic efforts that have paid off.
States like New Mexico and California would either have to have huge tax increases or the whole health care system would collapse under block grants.
New Mexico 838,000 out of the 2.088 million residents on Medicaid
I am all for a robust Medicaid program like in North Dakota, but in New Mexico they only reimburse providers at 78% of the Medicare fee which brings the whole health care system closer and closer to collapse.
North Dakota is a very, very rich state so unlike New Mexico, it can afford to reimburse primary care providers at Medicare rates.
North Dakota is so rich it does not have a Level One Trauma Center. Maybe someday.
In the meantime, they do the best they can or airlift out of state.
When are you relocating to ND?
We do not have enough medical professionals here. It’s a massive problem statewide. But in all fairness, Wyoming doesn’t have a level 1 trauma center either. I think Alaska’s physical size and lack of proximity to other states is the only reason they do have one. We don’t have the population to justify having such a center.
Maybe the east side of the state does, but that’s not the case where I live.
Not sure which side of North Dakota they originated, but North Dakota social services places children who need residential care in Minnesota facilities. When they reach 18, North Dakota stops the funding and the social worker who visits intermittently tells them that coming back to North Dakota would be pointless as there are no services for them there.
In Duluth, Lutheran Social Services used to provide support for the months until they were eligible for Minnesota support. Social workers in Minneapolis and St. Paul reported a similar phenomena.
Adults with long-term mental health issues were placed in Minnesota board and care facilities. If they left for a time, say to return home for an unauthorized visit, the funding was cut off. No support services in their home community, so they'd wander back to Minnesota where social workers would work to get them stabilized again. Only this time, North Dakota would not provide funding as there had been a break in service.
Also, on a more or less regular basis, North Dakota residents who hit a bad patch, show up in Minnesota. Some call the Crisis Team from the bus station.
Now you would think things would have changed since the oil business brightened North Dakota's financial situation. Friends who still work in social services in Minnesota say not really.
LMAO...they don’t even have a million people. There’s a reason for that.
It’s a cold, forlorn and barren dump.
It's gorgeous country.
Little nippy in the winter, but other than that.
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