- As Medicaid Loses Stigma, Its Fate Rides On Stormy Election AP by By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar—Medicaid, often stigmatized among government healthcare programs, is finally coming into its own. The federal–state program for low-income people has been scarcely debated in the turbulent presidential election, but it faces real consequences depending on who wins the White House in the Nov. 8 vote. Under President Barack Obama, Medicaid has expanded to cover more than 70 million people and shed much of the social disapproval from its earlier years as a welfare program. Two big industries—insurers and hospitals—have a declared stake in the future of the program, which costs more than $530 billion a year…."It is no longer a program that is seen as exclusively for people who are not working," said Robert Blendon, a public opinion expert at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "Medicaid now covers so many people from different income backgrounds that it is seen as much broader program that provides health insurance to people of modest incomes."
- Medicaid Expansion Enrollment Exceeds 326,000 New Members New Orleans Times-Picayune by Jed Lipinski—More than 326,000 people have enrolled in Louisiana Medicaid Expansion since it went into effect July 1, marking a new milestone for the program, Louisiana Department of Health announced Thursday (Oct. 20). More than 24,000 of those new members have received preventative care visits with a provider. Such visits allow health care providers to preempt costly illnesses and other health problems through immunizations, lab tests, physical exams and prescriptions. They also allow physicians to educate patients about possible health risks. "The primary goal of expansion is to ensure better health outcomes for the working poor of Louisiana," said Gov. John Bel Edwards. "Early data show that expansion is working, and our people are getting the health care services they need."