Health Care

While the idea of a work requirement may sound good to some, the reality is that it would take away health coverage, create more red tape and make it harder for many people who want to work to find employment.

Senate Republicans are proposing to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that everyone buy insurance as part of their tax overhaul bill. This would have serious consequences for Louisiana’s health care system, especially older Louisianans who buy insurance through the individual marketplace.… Read more...

Children’s health advocates were encouraged by last week’s announcement that key senators had struck a deal to reauthorize the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for five years. Unfortunately, Sen. Bill Cassidy’s last-ditch partisan effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is getting in the way of the effort to renew CHIP before its expiration date, which could have devastating consequences for kids.… Read more...

More Louisianans than ever before were covered by health insurance in 2016, according to figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The new Senate strategy to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement should be a “non-starter,” to use the words of Sen. Bill Cassidy earlier this month.  The “repeal-only” approach would take health insurance away from more Americans and Louisianans than any of the replacement bills put forth by the House or Senate to date.… Read more...

The Senate health bill would lead to 22 million more people uninsured nationally, including hundreds of thousands of Louisianans. It would raise average after-tax-credit marketplace premiums in Louisiana by 105 percent and it contains a glaring loophole that would mean people with pre-existing conditions would not be protected.

The American Health Care Act would be devastating for the state budget, health care providers and residents of all parts of the state.

More than two dozen organizations are calling on the Senate to reverse $237 million in unnecessary cuts to healthcare services ordered by the House of Representatives earlier this month.

In a  joint letter to the members of the Senate Finance Committee, groups that represent healthcare providers, patients and ordinary citizens said the proposed cuts are unnecessary, as the House simply refused to spend money that is available in the budget.… Read more...