Medicaid

There was a dignity in getting up to go to work each day, even if it was a low-wage janitorial job.

Louisiana's recently expanded Medicaid program reached an impressive 225,900 enrollees as of last Friday, after beginning the process June 1.

Louisiana Department of Health officials had enrolled more than 220,000 people into the state's Medicaid expansion as of 9 a.m. Wednesday (June 22), with 9,000 of those people coming from the food stamp rolls.

Officials with the Louisiana Department of Health announced they will begin taking steps to terminate Alternatives Living from the state Medicaid program. The action follows a federal indictment handed down today in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana that accuses the owners of Alternatives Living of the theft of federal funds and conspiracy to commit theft of federal funds. The indictment was handled by the U.S. Attorney following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This article was done in partnership with Kaiser Health News. Aretha Frison got an unusually helpful mailing recently through the Louisiana food stamp program. The letter indicated that she could qualify for Medicaid coverage beginning next month. Frison, usually a journalist by occupation, has been able to work only part time at an animal hospital while suffering with major depression.

Joshua Guillory, 32, dropped his Obamacare health plan in January after losing his oil plant job. He couldn't afford the premiums any longer.

Louisiana's Medicaid expansion marked a major breakthrough for Obamacare as the first state in the Gulf South to opt into the program, a move only possible after Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards won the governor's mansion last year.

The Department of Health has updated new enrollment figures for Healthy Louisiana, the State’s expanded Medicaid program, with total enrollment of new adult members having reached 208,879 adults as of June 15.

Ernest Burrell poured eight orange, translucent plastic bottles from a bag onto the floor of his Central City apartment. They clattered on the chipped, ruddy concrete. Unpronounceable labels — Spironolactone, Amlodipine, Indapamide and more — were typed in faint serif font above handwritten notes on which pills to take once a day, twice a day, three times a day.

By Harris Meyer I June 1, 2016 - One of the nation's poorest, least-insured and unhealthiest states is launching a major effort Wednesday to expand Medicaid coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income residents. Hospitals and other healthcare providers there say it can't happen soon enough.