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W e d n e s d ay, M ay 14, 2025
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Medicaid bill could affect many in La.
Congress eyes billions in cuts, removal of enrollees BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — The future of Medicaid for the next decade — who gets tossed off its rolls and how much more Louisiana taxpayers will have to pay — is being decided this week by a U.S. House committee charged with lowering the costs of health care for low-income Americans.
The Republican majority on the House Energy and Commerce Committee began cobbling together its bill Tuesday afternoon and warned members that they could be working all night and through much of Wednesday before the legislation is ready. Given the slim GOP majority in the House, two of the more controversial proposals were sidelined: how much could be spent on each
Medicaid patient and requiring the states to pay more under the federal match rate. But the plan under consideration, which could be revised, contains policy changes that the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates could cut $715 billion from Medicaid. Roughly 8.5 million beneficiaries, about 10% of Medicaid’s rolls, would be removed and upward of 13.7 million low-income
Americans would be left without health care coverage by 2034, the budget office stated. It’s not yet clear precisely what affect the changes would have on Louisiana, which has 1.6 million enrolled in Medicaid, about a third of the state’s population. When all the various match rates for all the different programs are averaged, Louisiana is responsible for about 30% of the total costs. Many health care leaders in the state said they wanted to see the final proposal before commenting on the impact it
WATER WOES
Rural areas of Louisiana dealing with systems that some fear are ‘ticking time bombs’
The small town of Monterey in Concordia Parish saw its water system grade from the Louisiana Department of Health drop from an ‘A’ to a ‘C’ this year.
would have here. Republicans argue they are reining in a program that has grown too expensive. “Medicaid was created to protect health care for Americans who otherwise could not support themselves. The Democrats expanded the program far beyond this core mission,” House Energy Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said to open a hearing on the plan “We make no apologies for prioritizing
ä See MEDICAID, page 8A
Cold-case arrest made in boy’s death
Police: Evidence links man to 2014 shooting BY ELLYN COUVILLION and QUINN COFFMAN Staff writers
ing on by a thread, nervous that one well breakdown could threaten their ability to supply residents with water. The state got a windfall of federal funds during the pandemic to address many of the problems plaguing the systems. And the money, routed through the state’s Water Sector Program, has been widely touted for repairing some of the most desperate problems. But the $750 million in federal funds has not come close to solving all of the state’s water issues. For instance: When the state began accepting grants, local governments applied for $2.2 billion in
Two years after the 2014 fatal shooting of a 7-year-old boy in Baton Rouge, a traffic stop uncovered a stolen gun that investigators — through ballistic tests and cellphone records — used to link a man arrested Monday to the killing, according to records. The driver, Rashad Montreal Turner, would ultimately face a charge of murder in the death of 7-year-old Terrez Coleman, who was struck by a bullet Aug. 16, 2014, on Prescott Road as he rode home with his parents and two sisters from a family reunion. The bullet punctured a window, grazed one of the sisters and hit Terrez in the torso, killing him almost instantly. East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s detectives investigating the killing recovered a bullet from the boy’s clothes and a shell casing from the ground, but that evidence led nowhere at the time. Then, in November 2016, deputies pulled over a vehicle on Antioch Road and found narcotics and a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun that had been reported stolen to the Ruston Police Department in September 2013, according to an affidavit for Monday’s arrest of Turner. Turner was arrested on narcotics and weapons counts. He ended up pleading guilty to a gun charge. Six months later, detectives learned from a national law enforcement ballistics testing service that the shell casing found on Prescott Road where Terrez died matched the gun stolen from Ruston and found in Turner’s car, authorities said.
ä See WATER, page 13A
ä See MURDER, page 8A
STAFF PHOTOS By BRETT DUKE
Monterey resident Jennifer Barrington and her husband Todd say they can’t cook with the tap water because it’s too salty, and it destroyed two hot water heaters over the span of about two years. BY SAM KARLIN
the span of about two years, she said. “You can’t even use it for ice,” she said. “It’s been getting worse.” Like many small communities around The water started showing signs of the state, Monterey is dealing with a probtrouble a couple of years ago. It smelled like rotten eggs or bleach. It lem that elected officials have long known sometimes came out of the tap brown and was coming. murky. Louisiana’s aging water systems are In the small town of Monterey along decaying. Louisiana’s eastern border, about 30 miles Hundreds of water systems around southwest of Natchez, Mississippi, Jenni- the state are in dire need of fixes. Many are decades old, with years of deferred fer Barrington looked for ways to cope. Barrington, 55, said it got bad enough maintenance. Cast-iron or clay pipes are that she bought an expensive water fil- breaking down. Chemicals needed to puter for her home. She can’t cook with the rify the water are creating brown, murky tap water because it’s too salty, and it de- water. Treatment centers and pumps are stroyed two of her hot water heaters over faltering. Some small towns are hang-
Staff writer
Lawmakers weigh seed oil labeling law BY EMILY WOODRUFF
Kennedy Jr. and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement that the cooking Louisiana lawmakers are oils are harmful. In a hearing two weeks ago considering a bill that would require restaurants to dis- before the Senate Health close their use of seed oils, and Welfare Committee, a a move aligned with claims pediatrician called seed oils by Health and Human Ser- “toxic.” A wellness coach lavices Secretary Robert F. beled them “inflammatory.” Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 89 LOW 73 PAGE 8B
Sen. Patrick McMath, RCovington, who authored the bill, also claimed that certain ingredients in seed oils, most commonly referred to as vegetable oils, cause “chronic inflammation, which causes chronic disease.” But as Sen. Jay Luneau,
D-Alexandria, pointed out in the meeting, “we like to fry stuff in Louisiana.” Seed oils — including canola, rapeseed, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, rice bran, safflower and soybean — have been staples in Louisiana
Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, is sponsoring a bill requiring restaurants to disclose the use of seed oils.
STAFF FILE PHOTO
ä See OIL, page 11A
Business ......................3B Commentary ................7B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....4D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
100TH yEAR, NO. 318