Health Care
Louisiana will do extra checks of nursing home evacuation sites before hurricane season
The extra check is a precautionary measure after more than 800 nursing home residents had to be rescued from an evacuation site at a Tangipahoa Parish warehouse following Hurricane Ida.
Louisiana House guts abortion bill that could have sent pregnant patients to prison
The Louisiana House gutted a controversial abortion bill Thursday, removing language from it that could have sent people who undergo the procedure to prison, outlawed certain forms of birth control, and criminalized parts of the in vitro fertilization process. The rewrite has stalled the legislation, because the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, is […]
If Louisiana bans abortion, will the state spend more money on pregnant people, children?
Anti-abortion Republican lawmakers who oversee the budget process in the Louisiana Legislature offered little to no insight on whether more money would be made available for increased maternal health and child care.
Edwards declines to share personal views on leaked draft of Supreme Court abortion opinion
Gov. John Bel Edwards declined Wednesday to share his personal views on a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that indicates the court is leaning toward overturning Roe vs. Wade – the landmark court decision that guarantees access to abortion across the country. When asked about the draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel […]
Bill advances to provide free, easy access to menstrual products in Louisiana schools
While some schools already provide these products in the nurse’s office or the main office, many do not. A trip to one of those offices can take up class time.
Louisiana Senate overwhelmingly votes for abortion pill restrictions
The Louisiana Senate overwhelmingly approved more restrictions on abortion pills in a 33-2 vote Monday (April 25). Every Republican and eight out of 10 Democrats in the chamber supported the legislation carried by Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell. No senator spoke out against the restrictions on the Senate floor before the vote took place. Senate Bill […]
Edwards administration scraps proposal for secret nursing home reports
Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration has pulled a proposal that would require nursing homes to submit reports on their emergency responses to natural disasters after it faced criticism for suggesting a secretive review process. The Edwards administration had initially recommended those nursing home “after-event” reports be shielded from public release, but it dropped the obligation […]
COVID pandemic creates setbacks for HIV care in Louisiana
When COVID hit, it forced immunocompromised people like HIV sufferers to isolate themselves. Many of the more than 22,000 Louisiana residents with HIV or AIDS lost in-person access to health providers, and newly diagnosed patients did not get the treatments that can keep them from transmitting the virus.
Louisiana lawmakers look to assign responsibility for nursing home evacuation plans
Louisiana edged closer Tuesday to assigning responsibility for nursing home emergency plans to a specific state agency and closing a regulatory loophole that may have contributed to the horrific evacuation of over 800 nursing home residents to an old pesticide warehouse last year. The House Health and Welfare Committee moved forward House Bill 291 to […]
Louisiana lawmakers consider more restrictions for abortion pill
Senate Bill 388, sponsored by Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, is part of a national anti-abortion push to prohibit medical staff from prescribing abortion pills online or over the phone and then sending the pills through the mail.
Louisiana lawmakers promise nursing home reform, but produce few proposals
The failure to protect nursing home residents from the squalid conditions of an evacuation center staged in an old pesticide warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish was arguably the biggest scandal from Hurricane Ida. State health officials were eventually forced to rescue hundreds of elderly and medically fragile people from the site, and several died in the […]
She has cancer. But as an DACA recipient, she couldn’t get insurance for months.
Karla Rodriguez, who was brought to the U.S. as a child, isn’t eligible for Medicaid in Idaho and does not qualify for premium subsidies on Idaho’s health insurance exchange.