A large chunk of the $1.5 trillion in spending cuts outlined in a GOP budget blueprint would fall on Medicaid, which provides affordable health care to the elderly, children and people with low incomes and disabilities. While some Republican leaders note the federal health care program is not mentioned by name in the budget resolution that cleared the House last month, the plan instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to cut $880 billion in spending over the next 10 years. The Times Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Emily Woodruff reports:
Health policy experts say it would be difficult to cut that much without dipping into Medicaid significantly. The majority of funding that the committee oversees is related to Medicaid and Medicare. Even if the committee eliminates all nonhealth care spending, it would still fall more than $600 billion short. “In order to find those savings, they’re going to have to look everywhere,” said Courtney Foster, senior policy adviser at Invest in Louisiana, a policy organization that advocates for low- and moderate-income families.
Woodruff spoke to families who rely on Medicaid to understand the impact of these devastating cuts:
Claire Tibbets, executive director at the Autism Society of Greater New Orleans, and her husband, who works in shipping and receiving at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, pay over $500 per month for private insurance. But their 7-year-old daughter is covered through LaCHIP, Louisiana’s Medicaid program for children; adding her to their private plan would be financially impossible, she said. Medicaid also covered their daughter’s monthlong NICU stay when she was born prematurely. “I don’t even know how we would have paid for that, honestly,” she said.
In Louisiana, where 1 in 3 people are covered by Medicaid, the cuts could force hospitals, nursing homes and other private care providers to shut their doors:
A loss of insurance doesn’t change health care needs, said Alice Riener, chief executive officer of CrescentCare, a Federally Qualified Health Center with locations in New Orleans and Houma. Patients will still need care, they will just wait to get it or access emergency rooms more often. An increase in uncompensated care could devastate small hospitals, she said. “Rural hospitals will close,” Riener said. “Clinics will be deeply impacted.”
Federal funding cuts create anxiety in Louisiana
The prospect of federal funding cuts are rippling through Louisiana. Last month, higher education leaders explained how President Donald Trump’s plan to cut $4 billion from the National Institutes of Health, which supports university research programs, could create crippling deficits at their schools. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Christopher Cartwright explains how the NIH cut would hinder biomedical and cancer research in Louisiana:
Ernie Ballard, a spokesperson for LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, said the president’s planned change to NIH’s funding process could cut more than $5 million from the center’s budget and threaten a portion of its roughly 600 jobs. In addition, Dr. Lucio Miele, director of the LSU-LCMC Health Cancer Center in New Orleans, said it would be a “multimillion-dollar hit” to that institution. Pennington and the LSU Health Sciences Center each received over $20 million in NIH windfalls in 2024, according to agency data.
Groups that support survivors of sexual assaults are asking Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration for more funding as the federal government pulls back. The Louisiana Illuminator’s Julie O’Donoghue reports:
Louisiana is unusually dependent on the federal government for sexual assault survivor resources. The state provides money for sexual assault forensic medical exams – commonly called rape kits – but it directs no financial help to rape crisis centers for victim advocacy or counseling. … The Landry administration is working on legislation that would, for the first time, provide a steady source of state funding for rape crisis centers as well as domestic violence shelters and child advocacy centers, which support abuse victims who are minors.
More states offering fortified roof programs
Houses with fortified roofs are more likely to sustain hurricane-force winds, and have been hailed as a key part of the solution to the property insurance crisis in coastal regions. The Washington Post’s Anna Phillips explains why more states are creating programs to help residents pay for these crucial upgrades.
“The states see the economic reality,” said Jesse Keenan, a professor and director of the Center on Climate Change and Urbanism at Tulane University’s School of Architecture. If coastal cities and tourist beach towns become uninsurable and property values fall, these states could face declining tax revenue at the same time they have to spend more to recover from storms. “Dollar for dollar, these grant programs are good for the economy. And it’s just good politics,” Keenan said.
Louisiana was slow to roll out a fortified roofing program, but is making progress:
Louisiana, which launched a similar grant program in 2023, is the fastest growing market. About 2,000 homes there have received stronger roofs through the state’s grant program, while another 3,000 were done at the homeowner’s expense. … The program’s budget, now about $15 million, comes from the state’s general fund and has to be renewed each year. But [Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim] Temple said the program has been so successful, he hopes to convince the state legislature make it permanent.
Landry bashes teacher’s assignment on climate change
Stronger storms fueled by climate change are making Louisiana a riskier and more expensive place to live. Rising sea levels pose an existential threat for coastal parishes, and the state’s insurance crisis is crushing the dream of homeownership for many residents. These harsh realities didn’t stop Gov. Jeff Landry, a climate-change denier, from lashing out at a teacher and students on social media who wrote to him about their concerns of a warming planet. The Louisiana Illuminator’s Greg LaRose reports:
[An unidentified parent] said his son wrote one of the messages Landry highlighted, and he had a problem with the governor using his son as “a political pawn.” He and other students were just following an assignment that involved science and civics, the unidentified parent told board members. “Instead of wanting to engage students, [Landry] wants to vilify a teacher and use the child as a political pawn,” the parent said.
Tangipahoa Parish School Board member Brett Duncan was not pleased with Landry’s move:
The parent had at least one ally in school board member Brett Duncan, who said he didn’t appreciate being “blindsided” by the governor. Duncan said Landry didn’t reach out to the board to learn more about the assignment or teacher in question before their Feb. 25 meeting. “In the future, I would hope the governor would actually look into the specifics of things before he starts just badmouthing teachers, badmouthing school systems and using students to score political points,” Duncan said.
ICYMI: The Didja Know? Podcast is back after a long hiatus! Invest in Louisiana’s Jan Moller and Paul Braun explain why Amendment 2, which will appear on the March 29 statewide ballot, would take Louisiana in the wrong direction. Listen here.
Number of the Day
33% – Percentage of U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s constituents who are enrolled in Medicaid. (Source: The New York Times)