Health Care

hurricane evacuation route sign

Louisiana will do extra checks of nursing home evacuation sites before hurricane season

BY: - May 17, 2022

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.

microscopic view of in-vitro fertilization

Louisiana House guts abortion bill that could have sent pregnant patients to prison

BY: - May 12, 2022

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 […]

A physician writes on a clipboard next to a pregnant woman with her hands on her midsection.

If Louisiana bans abortion, will the state spend more money on pregnant people, children?

BY: - May 12, 2022

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. 

Louisiana governor discusses solar and wind at U.N. climate conference

Edwards declines to share personal views on leaked draft of Supreme Court abortion opinion

BY: - May 4, 2022

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 […]

sink with soap dispenser in a school bathroom

Bill advances to provide free, easy access to menstrual products in Louisiana schools

BY: - May 3, 2022

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.

abortion rights

Louisiana Senate overwhelmingly votes for abortion pill restrictions

BY: - April 25, 2022

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 […]

Nursing Home Scandal

Edwards administration scraps proposal for secret nursing home reports

BY: - April 21, 2022

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 […]

HIV test at Crescent Care in New Orleans

COVID pandemic creates setbacks for HIV care in Louisiana

BY: - April 19, 2022

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.

Bob Dean warehouse

Louisiana lawmakers look to assign responsibility for nursing home evacuation plans

BY: - April 14, 2022

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

BY: - April 12, 2022

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.

Bob Dean warehouse

Louisiana lawmakers promise nursing home reform, but produce few proposals

BY: - April 5, 2022

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 […]

Karla Rodriguez sits with her children, Diego, 3, and Jazmin, 5,

She has cancer. But as an DACA recipient, she couldn’t get insurance for months.

BY: - April 2, 2022

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.