Some public defender offices turning away clients, East Baton Rouge ‘treading water’ during budget crisis, By Bryn Stole, February 16, 2016, Baton Rouge Advocate: “Public defenders in East Baton Rouge Parish are, for the time being, weathering the deepening funding crisis better than some other district offices elsewhere in Louisiana. Unlike public defenders in other parishes such as Lafayette, Vermilion, Acadia and Orleans, Mike Mitchell, the chief public defender in East Baton Rouge, said his office hasn’t yet been forced to turn away clients…”
$1 hike in court fees aimed at boosting Legal Aid, By Zack Pluhacek, February 17, 2016, Lincoln Journal Star: “A bill to raise state court fees by $1 would provide much-needed funding for Legal Aid of Nebraska, supporters said Wednesday. State Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln, who sponsored the legislative measure (LB1098), says it would raise an extra $355,000 a year for the nonprofit law firm that provides free legal help to low-income people in non-criminal cases. Seven in 10 low-income Nebraskans deal with a significant legal issue each year, Morfeld said…”
Should some Ohio Medicaid recipients have to pay premiums?, By Catherine Candisky, January 18, 2016, Columbus Dispatch: “Tens of thousands of low-income Ohioans could lose Medicaid coverage under a state plan to charge premiums and impose penalties on those who miss the payments, advocates for the poor warn…”
Louisiana’s Medicaid expansion enrollment could grow to 450,000, By Kevin Litten, January 22, 2016, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “The Department of Health and Hospitals is now forecasting that Louisiana’s Medicaid rolls could swell to nearly 450,000 people after initially projecting that as many as 300,000 uninsured could be covered under the federally funded program. The department had originally based its projections based on U.S. Census data that counted about 306,000 people as uninsured. But there is also a population of about 130,000 people who are part of the Take Charge Plus program who are eligible to receive screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and family planning services for men and women even if they aren’t eligible for Medicaid coverage…”
Obama seeks to boost financial assistance for states’ Medicaid expansion, By Louise Radnofsky, January 14, 2016, Wall Street Journal: “The Obama administration is proposing to extend a financial sweetener the federal government offers states that expand their Medicaid programs, in a bid to persuade more to do so before the president leaves office. White House officials said President Barack Obama will ask Congress to include three years of full federal funding of expansion for any state that extends eligibility for the program to most low-income residents. Officials said the proposal will be made in Mr. Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget, to be released Feb. 9…”
Bevin’s Medicaid testing ground lies in E. Ky., By Laura Ungar and Chris Kenning, January 14, 2016, Louisville Courier-Journal: “These hardscrabble Appalachian hills so rife with need and illness have been a national testing ground for Obamacare over the past two years, but they may soon test something more fundamental – the age-old struggle to balance personal responsibility with the obligation to care for the poor. The Affordable Care Act gave thousands of residents in Eastern Kentucky, one of the nation’s most vulnerable communities, unprecedented new access to health care – mostly through expansion of taxpayer-funded Medicaid, helping make Kentucky a national model. But it also raised fears about yet another burden on a fragile state budget and skepticism among conservatives who saw it as out of step with their political ideology…”
Louisiana’s new governor signs an order to expand Medicaid, By Richard Fausset and Abby Goodnough, January 12, 2016, New York Times: “On Tuesday, his second day in office, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed an executive order expanding Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, fulfilling a campaign promise that will expand health coverage to hundreds of thousands of people in one of the nation’s poorest states…”
Why is Louisiana’s Medicaid expansion so important?, By Christina Beck, January 14, 2016, Christian Science Monitor: “Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards recently signed controversial Medicaid expansion legislation into law. President Obama visited Louisiana on Thursday in hopes that Medicaid’s success there will spur other conservative states to consider the plan. Governor Edwards (D) signed Medicaid expansion legislation on Tuesday, his first day in office. He has long been a proponent of the Medicare expansion, which he believes will help Louisiana counter its wellness woes…”
