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Correction In “Gridiron Brawl” (news & views, June 26), we misspelled the name of the company that built the Tulane stadium. The correct name is the lionel F. Favret Company. Gambit regrets the error.
Mystery After the Health Care Ruling
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Which states will refuse Medicaid expansion?
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The U.S. Supreme Court left the Affordable Care Act largely intact but rejected one key provision that would have required states to extend Medicaid eligibility to any individual earning less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, beginning in 2014. The federal government will pay 100 percent of the costs for the newly eligible — expected to include about 400,000 in Louisiana — for three years, phasing down to a 90-10 federal-state split thereafter. Prior to the court’s decision, states that refused to participate would have forfeited all federal Medicaid funding. Now state governments may opt out without penalty. During a July 1 appearance on Meet the Press, Gov. Bobby Jindal promised that Louisiana won’t take part in the program. Meanwhile, a recently passed federal transportation bill will cut more than $850 million in federal Medicaid funding to the state over the next two fiscal years. After state matching funds, that amounts to a $1 billion-plus budget hole for Louisiana’s Medicaid program. — Charles Maldonado, Gambit
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or many people without insurance, a key question raised by the supreme Court’s decision to uphold the affordable Care act is whether states will decline to participate in the law’s big Medicaid expansion. although the court on June 28 upheld the law’s mandate requiring individuals to buy insurance, the justices said the act could not force states to expand Medicaid to millions by threatening to withhold federal funding. republican leaders of some states already are saying they are inclined to say thanks, but no thanks. Tom suehs, the Texas health and human services executive commissioner whose state could cover an additional 1.8 million people by 2019, praised the court for giving “states more ability to push back against a forced expansion of Medicaid.” “The court clearly recognized that the affordable Care act put states in the no-win situation of losing all their Medicaid funding or expanding their programs knowing that they would face billions of dollars in extra costs down the road,” he said. The act, signed by President Barack obama in March 2010, required “states to extend Medicaid coverage to non-elderly individuals with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty line, or about $30,700 for a family of four,” according to a March 2012 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. The extension was expected to cover nearly 16 million people by 2019, one of the law’s main ways of reducing the ranks of the uninsured. The 26 states that challenged the health care law together account for an estimated 8.5 million people who would benefit from Medicaid’s expansion by 2019, more than half the total, according to ProPublica’s analysis of an Urban Institute report prepared for the Kaiser Family Foundation. page 12
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > july 10 > 2012
to city budget documents. But a June 28 story in Library Journal found that, in some smaller parishes, the grants account for significant portions of local library budgets. according to the story, the audubon regional library, which serves east Feliciana and saint helena parishes, received $50,000 from the state last year — 10 percent of the system’s total budget. dardenne said he hopes libraries can maintain funding for Internet access and computers, but “it will be at the expense of other priorities in their budgets.” according to a recently released U.s. Census report compiled from U.s. department of Commerce statistics, only about 63 percent of louisiana residents have at-home Internet access, compared to a national average of 71 percent. “at a time when we’re stressing education as much as we are in the state, it’s particularly concerning for young people who rely on their libraries because they might not have computer access at home,” dardenne said. “[The library grant program] is clearly an appropriate area for reconsideration next year.” dardenne — like Gov. Bobby Jindal, a republican — also criticized the governor for vetoing $100,000 in state grant funds to the Council on the development of French in louisiana (CodoFIl), which amounted to 40 percent of the state agency’s total operating budget. “This veto came out of the blue,” dardenne said. The lieutenant governor praised CodoFIl, saying the organization, created by lawmakers in 1968, had been “rejuvenated” in recent years, expanding its services, including French language immersion programs. The veto is “a slap in the face to every Frenchspeaking person in louisiana,” dardenne added. The lieutenant governor noted the ironic timing of Jindal’s veto: “during the bicentennial year when we’re celebrating the history of the state and our connections to France and Canada, it was particularly disturbing.” — Charles Maldonado
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