State Information: Louisiana
This state-specific page on Louisiana provides new materials published by Families USA, key health contacts, state government links, news and views from the state, and other resources that might be helpful to Louisiana advocates. Click on the links below to view the information you are interested in.
Key Health Contacts
Agenda for Children
P.O. Box 51837
New Orleans, LA 70151
Phone: 504-586-8509
Fax: 504-586-8522
Email: information@agendaforchildren.org
Website: www.agendaforchildren.org
BYNET Community Health Network
P.O. Box 278
1111 Weber Street
Franklin, LA 70538
Phone: 337-828-5638
Fax: 337-828-3793
Email: info@bynet-la.org
Website: http://www.bynet-la.org/
Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital
PO Box 71221
New Orleans, LA 70172
Website: http://www.savecharityhospital.com
Health Law Advocates of Louisiana
4640 S. Carroll Ave. #250
Phone: 888-890-7989
Email: info@hlalouisiana.org
Lousiana Consumer Healthcare Coalition
Moriba A. Karamoko
228 LeDoux Street
Breaux Bridge, LA 70517-4821
Phone: 337-781-8745
Fax: 440-332-1396
Email: moribakaramoko@hotmail.com
Website: www.lachc.org
SEIU Local 100
5177 Greenwell Springs Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70806
Phone: (225)923-3102
Fax: (225)923-3144
Email: labr@seiu100.org
Website: SEIU Local 100
Local 100 of the Service Employees International Union represents workers in community homes and nursing homes.
Southeast Louisiana Legal Services
1200 Derek Drive, Suite 100
Hammond, LA, 70404
Phone: 504-345-2130
Toll Free: 800-349-0886
Fax: 504-345-2686
Email: selegal@slls.org
Website: www.slls.org
Southeast Louisiana Legal Services is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services to low-income residents, the elderly, and victims of domestic violence.
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State Government Links
State of Louisiana Website
State Department of Insurance Website
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Other Resources
Worry No More: Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions Are Protected by the Health Care Law provides estimates of how many people will be protected from discrimination based on their health status thanks to the health care law. For the first time, the state reports include county-level data, and they include state-level data that are broken down by age, income, and racial or ethnic group. (July-August 2012) [Families USA]
Being a Woman Just Got a Little Easier: How the Affordable Care Act Benefits Women outlines what women stand to gain under the Affordable Care Act. (July 2012) [Families USA]
Dying for Coverage: The Deadly Consequences of Being Uninsured estimates the number of Americans who are dying prematurely due to lack of health coverage. It includes state-level data that are broken down by week, month, and year that were generated using the methodology originally developed by the Institute of Medicine. (June 2012) [Families USA]
Decoding Your Health Insurance: The New Summary of Benefits and Coverage provides national and state-level data on the nearly 173.5 million people with private insurance who will be helped by these plain-language summaries that are required by the health care law. (May 2012) [Families USA]
Good Business Sense: The Small Business Health Care Tax Credit in the Affordable Care Act provides national and state-level estimates of the number of small businesses that will be eligible for this tax credit and of how much the credits will be worth. It also includes data on how many workers could benefit as a result, broken down according to racial and ethnic group. (May 2012) [Families USA and Small Business Majority]
Louisiana Breaks New Ground: The Nation’s First Use of Automatic Enrollment through Express Lane Eligibility explains that, by using existing state data about family incomes to automatically enroll children in Medicaid, Louisiana has increased coverage for children and generated administrative savings of between $8 and $12 million in the first year alone. (February 2012) [Urban Institute]
The Bottom Line: How the Affordable Care Act Helps America's Families shows the net financial effects of the Affordable Care Act on family budgets. We found that lower- and middle-income families, both uninsured and insured, will be financial winners. | State Reports (October 2011) [Families USA]
Medicaid's Impact in the States: Helping People with Serious Health Care Needs examines how vital Medicaid is for residents with cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease, or heart disease or stroke. For these people, Medicaid can be the difference between life and death, and program cuts would put them at risk. Released in partnership with three other groups. (September 2011) [Families USA]
Jobs at Risk: Federal Medicaid Cuts Would Harm State Economies provides state-level data that show the devastating impact the House Republican budget proposal would have. The proposal's substantial Medicaid cuts would harm program enrollees and their families and lead to a loss of business activity and jobs in all states. | Calculator (June 2011) [Families USA]
Cutting Medicaid in the States: Harming Seniors and People with Disabilities Who Need Long-Term Care provides state-specific numbers on how many people would be affected by cuts to Medicaid long-term care spending, as well as how Medicaid helps families, state workers, and businesses. (May 2011) [Families USA]
House Republicans Propose to Slash Funding for Medicaid, Medicare, and Other Health Coverage Programs takes a closer look at how the recent budget proposal would harm seniors, children, and state economies, including state-specific numbers. (April 2011) [Families USA]
States Are Benefitting from Provisions of the Affordable Care Act lists the number of people in each state who are already benefiting from each of five provisions. The provisions include measures that are helping small businesses provide coverage to their workers, helping seniors get free preventive care, and protecting children with pre-existing conditions. | Table (March 2011) [Families USA]
Protecting Seniors and People with Disabilities: Why It Is Important to Preserve the Maintenance of Effort Requirement in the Affordable Care Act discusses how stripping the maintenance of effort requirement from the ACA will have negative consequences for the many people who depend on Medicaid by allowing states to change eligibility requirements. (February 2011) [Families USA]
Worry Less Spend Less: Out-of-Pocket Spending Caps Protect America's Families examines how the Affordable Care Act will protect insured people from high medical costs through new caps on out-of-pocket spending. It provides state-level estimates of how many residents will have spending that exceeds these caps and by how much, and it looks at how many of those residents work for small businesses. (February 2011) [Families USA]
Express Lane Eligibility: Early State Experiences and Lessons for Health Reform reviews the early experiences of four states under the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) and how those experiences can be instructive as states move to implement health reform. The states are Alabama, Iowa, Louisiana, and New Jersey. (January 2011) [Families USA]
Rate Review: Spotlight on State Efforts to Make Health Insurance More Affordable provides the results of a survey of 50 state rate review statutes and follow-up interviews with insurance regulators in 10 states (AK, CT, CO, ID, LA, ME, OH, PA, SC, and WI) to find out how rate regulation works in practice. (December 2010) [Kaiser Family Foundation]
How Health Reform Helps Communities of Color is a series of state-based fact sheets that discuss how provisions in the Affordable Care Act--both those for the general public and those specifically designed to eliminate health disparities--help communities of color in each state. (September-October 2010) [Families USA]
Lower Taxes, Lower Premiums: The New Health Insurance Tax Credit examines how this tax credit will help both insured and uninsured Americans. It provides data on the number of people eligible, the total dollars available, and on how it will help working families in particular. (September 2010) [Families USA]
A Helping Hand for Small Businesses: Health Insurance Tax Credits analyzes the health reform provision that provides tax credits to small employers to help them buy health coverage for their workers. This report, which was commissioned along with Small Business Majority, provides national and state-level data on the number of small businesses eligible for the credit in 2010, as well as the number eligible for the maximum tax credit. (July 2010) [Families USA]
Health Reform: New Opportunities for States to Invest in Home- and Community-Based Services is a series of state-specific fact sheets that explore the new options for states to expand home- and community-based services through the health reform law and the reasons why expanding this type of services is a good idea. (Summer 2010) [Families USA]
Health Reform: Help for Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions discusses how, under health reform, no one will be denied coverage, charged a higher premium, or sold a policy that excludes coverage of essential benefits because of pre-existing conditions. The report presents the number of Americans with diagnosed pre-existing conditions who, absent reform, would be at risk of being denied coverage in the individual insurance market. It breaks down this number by age, income, and race. (May 2010) [Families USA]
How Health Reform Helps the People of Louisiana looks at the many benefits that health reform will bring to the state, including cracking down on insurance company abuses, ending runaway premiums, and providing financial security. (May 2010) [Families USA]
Health Coverage in Louisiana: How Will Health Reform Help? discusses the major gaps in Louisiana's health coverage system and how health reform will address these gaps and help Louisianans, including the insured, the uninsured, people in Medicare, and small businesses. (March 2010) [Families USA]
Lives on the Line: The Deadly Consequences of Delaying Health Reform examines what would happen if Congress fails to pass health reform. Specifically, it provides national and state-level estimates of the number of deaths that would occur due to lack of health coverage if reform doesn't pass. It also quantifies how many Americans died due to lack of health coverage since the last effort to pass reform in 1994. (March 2010) [Families USA]
Guide to Finding Health Coverage: Louisiana Millions of Americans have no health insurance, and finding health insurance can be difficult. If you are looking for coverage, this guide can help point the way. Whether you have recently lost your job, are an early retiree, or have a serious medical condition, this guide includes numerous resources that may help you find the coverage you need. (Updated 2009) [Families USA]
Healthcare Reform Will Help Louisiana's Small Businesses examines how the state's small businesses struggle with high health insurance premiums and how health reform will address this problem, making health insurance more affordable for businesses and individuals. (September 2009) [Small Business Majority]
The Uninsured: A Closer Look–Louisianans without Health Insurance examines how many state residents were uninsured during 2007-2008. The report also takes a closer look at the number of uninsured, who they are, and how long they were uninsured. It mirrors the data in our national report, Americans at Risk: One in Three Uninsured. (April 2009) [Families USA]
Louisiana’s Medicaid Waiver Proposal: Is It the Right Fit for Louisiana? examines the state’s proposal, which would use managed care plans to provide more limited benefits to those who would be eligible under the expansion than the benefits that are provided to current beneficiaries. However, Louisiana lacks the type of managed care organizations on which the plan primarily depends, and while the proposal would provide coverage for some very low-income parents, their benefits would be substantially less than those available in standard Medicaid, and the out-of-pocket costs would be greater. (December 2008) [The Center for Studying Health System Change]
Premiums versus Paychecks: A Growing Burden for Louisiana's Workers. The impact of changes in employer-based health insurance premiums and earnings in Louisiana. (October 2008) [Families USA]
Bad Medicine: The President's Medicaid Regulations Will Weaken Louisiana's Economy States are facing a recession and reduced revenues. In 2007, the Bush Administration issued seven new regulations that together will strip an estimated $50 billion in federal funds from states over the next five years. These state-specific reports quantify the harm that these regulations will cause to state economies in terms of lost federal dollars, business activity, jobs, and wages. (April 2008)[Families USA]
Dying for Coverage in Louisiana For the more than 47 million Americans who are uninsured, lack of health insurance can have dire consequences: medical debt, missed care, and even premature death. This first-ever state-specific report examines the number of deaths due to lack of health insurance. (April 2008) [Families USA]
Giving Voice to the People of New Orleans: The Kaiser Post-Katrina Baseline Survey examines the ongoing struggles of residents trying to recover from the Hurricane Katrina disaster, including a detailed look at how those views and experiences differ by race. The survey documents the devastating impact that Hurricane Katrina and the government’s failed response have had on the economic well-being, physical and mental health, and personal lives of the people of the New Orleans area. (May 2007) [The Kaiser Family Foundation]
When an Apple A Day Isn't Enough: Students in Louisiana Speak Out about Health Care contains the winning essays from the "When an Apple a Day Isn't Enough" national essay contest as well as basic information about why health insurance matters for children. [Campaign for Children's Health Care]
Guide to Finding Health Insurance Coverage: Millions of Americans have no health insurance, and finding health insurance can be difficult. If you are looking for coverage, this guide can help point the way. Whether you have recently lost your job, are an early retiree, or have a serious medical condition, this guide includes numerous resources that may help you find the coverage you need. (Updated March 2007) [Families USA]
No Shelter from the Storm: Louisiana's Uninsured Children. This fact sheet takes a closer look at uninsured children in Louisiana—who they are and what kinds of services they miss out on as a result of being uninsured. Written by Families USA for the Campaign for Children's Health Care. (September 2006) [Families USA]
Open and Operating? An Assessment of Louisiana Nonprofit Health and Human Services after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita presents survey results detailing the operating status and needs of Louisiana’s health and human services agencies in the 37 parishes most affected by the hurricanes. Particularly important to recovery efforts, these organizations construct and manage affordable housing, provide reliable emergency services, and administer quality health care. (February 2006) [The Urban Institute]
Selected changes to current Medicare policies and practices could help ensure further access to health care and contribute to financial security for the nearly 200,000 Medicare beneficiaries displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Displaced by Hurricane Katrina: Issues and Options for Medicare Beneficiaries identifies issues and challenges for individuals on Medicare who were affected by Hurricane Katrina and offers options to address the problems they have encountered. The brief also identifies areas to be considered in future disaster planning efforts. (November 2005) [The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured]
Agenda for Children provides a clear, consistent, and informed voice on behalf of the needs of Louisiana's children and families. Its Web site offers information on services for children, legislative alerts, and more.
NACHRI, in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), has released 2005 updates of their state-specific Medicaid fact sheets. These fact sheets detail the importance of the Medicaid program to the health care of children in every state, as well as the critical role children's hospitals and pediatricians play in serving all children. Click here for a map that will take you to information specific to your state. (July 2005) [National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI)]
Paying a Premium: The Added Cost of Care for the Uninsured in Louisiana: A fact sheet with state-level data showing the dollar impact on private health insurance premiums of care provided to the uninsured. (June 2005) [Families USA]
Medicaid Cuts Are Bad Medicine: This fact sheet describes how Medicaid helps your state's economy, supports the state's health care infrastructure, provides essential health care to the most vulnerable residents, and reduces the number of uninsured. (January 2005) [Families USA]
The Uninsured: A Closer Look: A fact sheet with state-level data from One in Three: Non-Elderly Americans without Health Insurance, 2002-2003. (June 2004) [Families USA]
Good Medicine for State Economies, 2004 Update: Medicaid provides essential health care services for an estimated 51 million people of all ages and economic classes. Medicaid also plays a unique role in stimulating state economies. This report provides national and state-level data on the effects of Medicaid spending on state business activity, employment, and employee earnings. These updated numbers can be used to predict the economic impact of potential state Medicaid spending increases or cuts in fiscal year 2005.| Medicaid Calculator with updated figures (May 2004) [Families USA]
Who's Uninsured in Louisiana and Why? is a four-page fact sheet providing information on the uninsured population in the state -- their numbers and characteristics and some of the reasons they are uninsured. (November 2003) [Families USA]
Families USA has prepared state fact sheets that spell out the different amounts of help the House and Senate Medicare prescription drug bills would provide to low-income beneficiaries. Click here for this state's fact sheet. (July 2003) [Families USA]
Go Directly to Work, Do Not Collect Health Insurance: Louisiana is one of the states studied in this report, which provides documentation of the health coverage effects of welfare reform on low-income parents. (June 2000) [Families USA]
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