<p>A message from Alabama Arise:&nbsp;</p>
<p>Medicaid cuts are hurting children across Alabama. On Aug. 1, pediatricians and other primary care doctors saw their payments for caring for Medicaid patients drop by 30 percent. For a state where primary care resources have been stretched thin for decades, the cuts will reduce or eliminate access to health care in many communities. And even more cuts to our state&rsquo;s health infrastructure are coming, unless the Legislature acts now.</p>
<p>Our lawmakers passed a 2017 General Fund budget that left an $85 million shortfall in Medicaid, knowing that major cuts would follow. But they can find revenue to reverse these cuts.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Cuts to Medicaid hurt our communities, our neighbors and our entire health care system. We need leaders who will accept the responsibility of making sure state revenues meet our state&rsquo;s basic needs. The long-term solution for an adequate, stable General Fund includes passing new revenue and closing the coverage gap for working families. Closing the gap would keep Alabamians healthier and more productive, and it would save the state big money on current and future health care spending.</p>
<p>With a special session set to begin this Monday, the time to speak up is now. Please contact your state senator and representative today and tell them:</p>
<p>Reverse the Aug. 1 Medicaid cuts;</p>
<p>Raise revenue to prevent further Medicaid cuts; and</p>
<p>Expand Medicaid to help working families and strengthen our economy.&nbsp;</p>
<h1>
<a href="http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/51113/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19386"><strong>TAKE ACTION!&nbsp;</strong></a></h1>

<p class="e2ma-p-div"><span>by Bill McCormick, SJ, Ph.D., JSRI Summer Associate</span></p>
<p class="e2ma-p-div"><span class="e2ma-style">Last week, our nation celebrated the 240th anniversary of its independence. With that in mind, we propose to turn to Frederick Douglass&rsquo;&nbsp;<a href="http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/"><span>famous speech&nbsp;</span></a>on July 5, 1852 &ndash; &ldquo;What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?&rdquo; &ndash; to reflect upon the significance of this event. Below are excerpts of the speech with questions to prompt reflection on our nation&rsquo;s independence.</span></p>
<div class="e2ma-p-div">
<p><span class="e2ma-style">&ldquo;This&hellip; is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day.&rdquo;&nbsp;</span></p>
<ul>
<li>
<span class="e2ma-style">How did I experience the Fourth of July? Was it a time of celebration for me? Was I proud of the United States?</span></li>
<li>
<span class="e2ma-style">Do I think of our Independence as an &ldquo;emancipation,&rdquo; as a liberating event? How does it free me?</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="e2ma-p-div">
<p><span class="e2ma-style">&ldquo;Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. &mdash; The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.&rdquo;</span></p>
<ul>
<li>
<span class="e2ma-style">Have I ever mourned on the Fourth of July? For whom did I mourn?</span></li>
<li>
<span class="e2ma-style">Who in our time is denied the blessings of freedom?</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="e2ma-p-div">
<p><span class="e2ma-style">&ldquo;But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent Divines, who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity.&rdquo;</span></p>
<ul>
<li>
<span class="e2ma-style">What role does my church play in bringing others to freedom?</span></li>
<li>
<span class="e2ma-style">In what ways is my church blind or apathetic to modern forms of slavery and suffering?</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="e2ma-p-div">
<p><span class="e2ma-style">&ldquo;Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. &ldquo;The arm of the Lord is not shortened,&rdquo; and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope.&rdquo;</span></p>
<ul>
<li>
<span class="e2ma-style">Am I hopeful? Do I think positive change in the world is possible? Where do I find this hope?</span></li>
<li>
<span class="e2ma-style">Do I practice mindfulness of this hope? If not, how can I?</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="e2ma-p-div"><span class="e2ma-style">If we take Douglass&rsquo; message to heart, we will see that the Fourth of July is not really about the past: it&rsquo;s about the future. For while we rightly celebrate our independence, that achievement is incomplete. We are called to do more. That &ldquo;more&rdquo; is the task of the future, and the challenge that Douglass places before us.</span></p>
<p class="e2ma-p-div"><a href="https://t.e2ma.net/webview/b401k/3c388ca8a7b28394d8048a721c25308b"><span class="e2ma-style">MORE&gt;&gt;</span></a></p>

<p>Last month the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) and Center for American Progress (CAP) co-released <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2016/06/16/139551/refugee-integration-in-the-united-states/"><em>Refugee Integration in the United States. </em></a>&nbsp;The report focuses on four groups of refugees&mdash;Somali, Burmese, Hmong, and Bosnian&mdash;that together are a group of roughly 500,000 U.S. residents, and 20 percent of all refugees in the country.&nbsp; The report illustrates the various ways these refugee groups contribute to economic growth in cities and states throughout the country.</p>
<p>The national report tracks the integration of the four refugee groups including their employment rates, educational levels, English acquisition, and home ownership trends. Major findings include:</p>
<ul>
<li>
One in 12 immigrants in the United States came as a refugee or was granted asylum.</li>
<li>
Refugee groups are gaining a strong foothold in the labor market, with labor force participation rates of men in the Somali, Burmese, Hmong, and Bosnian refugee communities often exceeding those of U.S.-born men</li>
<li>
Employment rates for refugee women catch up after 10 years to about as high as or sometimes higher than those of U.S. born women.</li>
<li>
Refugees see substantial wage gains as they gradually improve their footing in the American economy, with some starting their own businesses and many shifting to occupations better suited to their abilities as they find ways to get certification for their existing skills and learn new ones.</li>
<li>
Refugees integrate into American society over time, with a large majority of refugees having learned English and becoming homeowners by the time they have been in the United States for 10 years.</li>
<li>
Three quarters or more of refugees have become naturalized U.S. citizens after 20 years.</li>
<li>
Initial employment placements and other assistance provided by resettlement organizations are credited with getting refugees started down the path of successful integration.</li>
</ul>
<p>&ldquo;Our findings in this new report demonstrate that when communities help refugees, they are also making an investment in their own future,&rdquo; said report author David Dyssegaard Kallick.&nbsp; &ldquo;The number of people forced to flee their country has reached record numbers in recent years&mdash;it&rsquo;s a humanitarian crisis on a scale not seen since the end of World War II. What this report shows is that, as a growing number of political leaders now realize, doing what&rsquo;s good for refugees is also good for the whole community -- their success is our success.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The report shows that 755 refugees in the four groups resettled in Louisiana, including 145 refugees from Somalia, 458 from Burma, and 152 from Bosnia. Data from the national <a href="http://www.wrapsnet.org/Reports/InteractiveReporting/tabid/393/EnumType/Report/Default.aspx?ItemPath=/rpt_WebArrivalsReports/Map%20-%20Arrivals%20by%20State%20and%20Nationality">Refugee Processing Center</a> that tracks all refugees entering the U.S. show that nearly 3,000 refugees have resettled in Louisiana since 2000. Several nonprofit resettlement agencies in the state provide case management services to hundreds of those refugees each year, including helping adult refugees find full-time employment. In 2014, 59 percent of the 238 refugees that those agencies aided in resettlement entered full-time employment during that year.</p>
<p>One of those resettlement agencies is Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, which operates the <a href="http://www.ccano.org/immigration-services/">Immigration and Refugees Services program</a>. The program staff aids in the economic and cultural integration of refugee families in New Orleans. &ldquo;I have worked with refugees for over 15 years, and have been awed by the skills and resources they offer amidst some of the greatest challenges imaginable,&rdquo; said Julie Ward, the program&rsquo;s director. &ldquo;Refugees and former refugees have shaped our community into what it is today.&nbsp; We are enriched everyday by the diversity, intellect, hard work, and innovation that refugees offer, and we in turn are more vibrant and resilient as a result of their contributions.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Despite the remarkably successful outcomes of refugees resettling in the U.S., policymakers in our state and country continue to disagree about how to handle a sharp rise in the number of people displaced by conflict and persecution in places like Syria. The United States has only resettled around 1,200 Syrian refugees, well below its pledged goal of 10,000 in 2016. Amid these disagreements, <em>Refugee Integration in the United States </em>demonstrates there is reason for encouragement. When welcomed into the United States and provided resettlement services, refugees bring significant cultural and economic benefits to our state and country.</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Black Lives Matter.png" /></p>

<h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 0px; direction: ltr; font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, san-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.4; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252);">
Nathaniel Romano, SJ, <a href="https://thejesuitpost.org/">The Jesuit Post&nbsp;</a></h4>
<p>&ldquo;The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.&rdquo; &nbsp;So wrote Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in his magisterial treatment, The Common Law, nearly 140 years ago. &nbsp; More and more, it becomes apparent that so much of our legal system &mdash; our justice system &mdash; reflects not (simply) abstract norms of perfection, but, rather, concrete and messy realities.</p>
<p>The best example of the law&rsquo;s life in experience on the Supreme Court now is the developing jurisprudence of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, particularly in dissent, and with a particular focus on criminal justice. Hers is a jurisprudence, as Adam Liptak noted in the New York Times, &ldquo;informed as much by events in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 as by those in Philadelphia in 1787.&rdquo;</p>
<p>To see this jurisprudence in action, we need look no further than her dissenting opinion in the case of Utah v. Strieff, No. 14-1373 579 U.S. ___ (June 20, 2016). &nbsp;Here, the Court divided 5-3 on the question of whether prosecutors could use evidence seized after an illegal stop, where a valid arrest warrant also existed that was unrelated to the illegal stop. &nbsp;The majority held that the warrant was an independent variable that legitimated the seizure, even though law enforcement had no basis to stop the defendant. &nbsp;Arrest warrants are often issued for relatively minor offenses, moreover minority communities are disproportionately subjected to such warrants and police supervision. These facts only add to the disquieting reality of violence at the hands of law enforcement in those communities. &nbsp;Unfortunately, these concerns were downplayed by the majority. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Justice Sotomayor, in dissent, rejected this out of hand. &nbsp;She engaged with the reality on the ground, relying on the findings of the Department of Justice reports on Ferguson, as well as the research of Michelle Alexander reported in The New Jim Crow, and the Court&rsquo;s own precedents on police stops and criminal justice. &nbsp;She focused on the implications from all of these sources to try and grapple with the actual reality of how police stops impact the American people. &nbsp;This section (beginning on page 22 of the Court&rsquo;s slip opinion), is short and readable, and is worth reading in full: &nbsp;Justice Sotomayor is clear that a police stop is a powerful, dramatic, and possibly devastating assertion of state-sanctioned power over an individual. &nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="https://thejesuitpost.org/2016/07/when-canaries-cant-breathe-sotomayors-justice-from-below/">MORE&gt;&gt;</a></p>

<p><a href="http://ignatiansolidarity.net/resources/faith-in-action-responding-to-racial-injustice/#tab-id-1"><img alt="" src="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/ISN Racial Justice.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 650px;" /></a></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><span class="pb-byline" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: FranklinITCProBold, sans-serif; display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 17.6px;">By&nbsp;<span itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Valerie R. Wilson</span></span><span style="font-family: FranklinITCProLight, HelveticaNeue, &quot;Helvetica Neue Light&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 17.6px;">&nbsp;</span><span class="pb-timestamp" content="2016-07-01T12:00-500" itemprop="datePublished" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.1em; font-family: FranklinITCProLight, HelveticaNeue, &quot;Helvetica Neue Light&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;, sans-serif; color: rgb(170, 170, 170); white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 5px; display: inline-block;">July 1</span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Each week,&nbsp;</em></strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 109, 157); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">In Theory</a>&nbsp;takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This&nbsp;week we&rsquo;re talking about payday lending.&nbsp;Need a primer? Catch up&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/06/27/whats-the-alternative-to-payday-loans/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 109, 157); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">here</a>.</em></strong></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Valerie R. Wilson is an economist and the director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute.</em></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Payday loans are advertised as a quick and easy solution to temporary cash flow problems. In reality, for most borrowers, the payday lending experience rarely ends up being easy or temporary.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Most take out these small-dollar loans to meet monthly or recurring expenses, which don&rsquo;t go away after the initial loan. Because few borrowers experience a change in economic circumstances before the loan is due, most have to take out another loan or incur fees to postpone repayment. Research from the&nbsp;<a href="http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201403_cfpb_report_payday-lending.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 109, 157); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">Consumer Financial Protection Bureau</a>&nbsp;says that 82 percent of loans are renewed within 14 days.</p>
<p channel="wp.com" class="interstitial-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/07/01/the-problem-is-bigger-than-payday-loans/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 109, 157); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">The problem is bigger than payday loans</a>]</i></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">By severely limiting the payday loan industry, the CFPB&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2016/06/02/what-consumers-need-to-know-about-the-rules-proposed-for-payday-loans/?tid=a_inl" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 109, 157); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">proposed new rules</a>&nbsp;are intended to put an end to the &ldquo;debt trap&rdquo; far too many economically vulnerable borrowers struggle to escape. This is a responsible and appropriate response from the agency charged with protecting the best interests of American consumers, but Congress has responsibilities as well.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">In addition to direct changes to industry rules, economic policies that broadly help to promote full employment and higher wages would go a long way toward reducing demand for payday loans in the first place. This includes policies such as raising the minimum wage and eliminating the tipped wage. Increasing the federal minimum wage to $12 by 2020, for example,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-minimum-wage-to-12-by-2020-would-lift-wages-for-35-million-american-workers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 109, 157); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">would lift wages for as many as 35 million workers</a>and increase incomes by roughly $2,300 a year for the average affected worker.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Other policies that will help to boost wages for low- and moderate-income earners include strengthening rights to collective bargaining, regularizing undocumented workers, ending forced arbitration and securing workers&rsquo; access to sick leave and paid family leave, as well as eliminating race and gender inequities in employment and pay. One of the best ways to provide a boost for low-wage workers is to pursue full employment by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.epi.org/nominal-wage-tracker/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 109, 157); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">keeping interest rates low until wage growth picks up</a>, or even by enacting employment programs targeting the hardest-hit communities. Public and nonprofit employment programs, for example, support full employment by creating jobs that are accessible to those facing significant barriers to employment and improving the quality of life and physical infrastructure in local communities.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Congress could also act by setting a non-predatory APR cap, similar to the 36 percent cap set for members of the military in the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.responsiblelending.org/payday-lending/research-analysis/Summary-of-MLA.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(46, 109, 157); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">Military Lending Act of 2006</a>. They could also pass legislation making the government a provider of emergency finance for the poor through the U.S. Post Office, as some have suggested.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Yet the continued proliferation of payday lenders makes clear that there is demand for the services they provide. The chronically cash-strapped clientele that payday lenders thrive on disproportionately includes those making less than $40,000 per year &mdash; often people with less than a bachelor&rsquo;s degree and African Americans. Imposing stricter regulations on the market or directly entering the market as a provider are both examples of how the government can intervene in the way in which these loans are supplied. Raising wages, on the other hand, would actually reduce demand for payday loans.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/07/01/want-to-eliminate-payday-lending-raise-the-minimum-wage/?tid=a_inl">Full Article&gt;&gt;</a></p>

<p><a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/on-views-of-race-and-inequality-blacks-and-whites-are-worlds-apart/">Full Report by Pew Research Center&nbsp;</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/on-views-of-race-and-inequality-blacks-and-whites-are-worlds-apart/"><img alt="" src="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Pew.jpg" /></a></p>

<p>BY ELIZABETH CRISP| ECRISP@THEADVOCATE.COM</p>
<p>Walking across the Baton Rouge Community College campus on a recent Tuesday, Jaylin Davis didn&rsquo;t know he was about to stumble upon some incredibly good news: He&rsquo;s likely to get no-cost health care coverage starting in July &mdash; thanks to Louisiana&rsquo;s decision to expand Medicaid.</p>
<p>Davis had only recently learned that when he turned 19 this spring he aged out of the Louisiana Children&rsquo;s Health Insurance Program and lost his LaCHIP health insurance.</p>
<p>&ldquo;They just sent me a letter in the mail,&rdquo; he told a reporter observing a recent Medicaid enrollment drive on the BRCC campus.</p>
<p>At that time, Davis, a BRCC student and local Wal-Mart stocker, said he had no idea that the state is expanding Medicaid to cover thousands of people like himself. He hadn&rsquo;t heard the political bickering nor the national praise that&rsquo;s been heaped on Gov. John Bel Edwards for expanding the health care program through the federal Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>As he made his way across campus, still wearing his dark blue Wal-Mart vest, a group promoting the sign-up effort encouraged him to meet with one of the certified enrollees inside to see if he would qualify. Thirty minutes later, he had a slip in hand and was told to keep an eye out for his new Medicaid card.</p>
<p>This wouldn&rsquo;t have been a typical Medicaid enrollment story &mdash; here or elsewhere &mdash; just a few years ago. But similar outreach efforts are going on throughout the state on college campuses, in churches, community centers, libraries and even some grocery stores.</p>
<p>Welcome to the new world of Medicaid expansion: Louisiana style.</p>
<p><strong>Working poor joining Medicaid</strong></p>
<p>Shortly after Edwards took office in January, he signed an executive order to expand Medicaid to cover thousands more Louisiana residents. Edwards, a Democrat, specifically said at the time that he wanted Medicaid cards in the hands of most new enrollees by July 1.</p>
<p>In Louisiana, Medicaid has almost exclusively benefited pregnant women, the disabled and children. There has been no way for able-bodied, single adults to get into the program. But the ACA encouraged states to raise the income level that qualifies to let more people &mdash; many of them the working poor &mdash; onto their Medicaid rolls. The incentive: For the first six months of expansion here, the federal government will pick up 100 percent of the costs for the newly covered. The match rate gradually drops back to 90 percent in 2020.</p>
<p>Adults whose income falls below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which is about $33,500 a year for a family of four or $16,200 for a single adult, are among the newly-eligible population.</p>
<p>The goal is to have 375,000 people signed up by next July 1. Officials estimate that as many as 580,000 people in Louisiana are eligible, and the state has one of the highest rates of uninsured people.</p>
<p>As of Friday, the state had already hit 225,900, a feat that has been praised by people from across the country.</p>
<p>It hasn&rsquo;t been an easy task, though. Cash-strapped and walking a fine line to not draw opposition from a tepid Republican-controlled state Legislature, the Edwards administration has relied on a creative blend of enrollment efforts. Much of the effort has relied on existing infrastructure or help from outside entities.</p>
<p><strong>Inventive enrollment ideas</strong></p>
<p>&ldquo;They say that necessity is the mother of invention,&rdquo; state Health Secretary Dr. Rebekah Gee often recites when describing how the state is going about signing up thousands of people for health insurance.</p>
<p>Louisiana became the first state in the country to link Medicaid enrollment to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, after having won the approval of the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.</p>
<p>The state sent more than 105,000 &ldquo;canary yellow&rdquo; forms to people already benefitting from the federally-funded food stamps program to notify them that they now also qualify for Medicaid. If they confirm four simple income-related questions by phone, fax, mail or email, SNAP recipients will be enrolled in Medicaid.</p>
<p>Louisiana also was able to auto-enroll people benefitting from an existing program in the state&rsquo;s Take Charge Plus program that primarily provided reproductive health care services, including birth control and sexually transmitted infection testing; as well as the Greater New Orleans Community Health Connection, a post-Katrina system of health clinics.</p>
<p>People who benefitted from those programs received letters earlier this month notifying them that they will have full Medicaid coverage beginning July 1 with no action necessary.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When you think about how we were able to enroll so many people in such a short period already, it&rsquo;s pretty remarkable,&rdquo; Gee said. &ldquo;Sometimes having a low-resource environment isn&rsquo;t always bad.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Other states that have expanded Medicaid have hired hundreds of new workers to lead enrollment efforts and execute flashy campaigns.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re recognized already across the country for how innovative we&rsquo;ve been,&rdquo; Edwards said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/state/16210249-123/louisiana-officials-praise-medicaid-expansion-225900-have-signed-up-as-of-friday">MORE&gt;&gt;</a></p>

<p>From the<a href="http://www.labudget.org/lbp/"> Louisiana Budget Project</a> <em>Daily Dime</em>, June 24, 2016:&nbsp;</p>
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<p>New data shows that 60 percent of what the federal government spends on housing benefits households with incomes above $100,000. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities cites a new<a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001cuHrkfT-ve6gajdUQUhZX8D4sPym5FGS7HUrljW3r5UfB0OJiD-U8vcfP_TGuwmlr3o63zGADDOJBWp1bzsX_wZch14XpNye8ClCQCPmtpbIEQpoowWYwIrckryl5L7IYXWdqj_rMN6SvFasQpCMLIojUoRc5aqaEUiRxXlUy3l45Iv429Z9jCDoVzZ6Mo9BWEX9MWA_0n1dXSxeuYYx1Q==&amp;c=qtCidSiwI35WHaFGYc64KG0PsTuUBCFuAeWHszDN2GT186ghY6QpXA==&amp;ch=-AYmwQ9vdQbDSkt6vKthHIl6bQms7Vt73AmHMZsF7H0XCdJrw30Trw==" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window">report</a>&nbsp;from Harvard&#39;s Joint Center for Housing Studies that finds the number of&nbsp;<a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001cuHrkfT-ve6gajdUQUhZX8D4sPym5FGS7HUrljW3r5UfB0OJiD-U8vcfP_TGuwmlkEWbCb23oprypJHF7_HcGLkuBJuy6RLiN1hIRj5uk0NLy2R-t1JAq84l4Cs6BLPcvsluhSlTp1gQIEelFgFaXh1lLM2Ze7CgKp56D_IGqvQOkdwQvNgqIZtxPZgd6oCgFN203snV2SszlkSDsbR96fYoLGzDuw_4rr7U0Ncnw-_szZC3z40pLZcFCnO_O5zqV8OoNfAUXFgCUIMBdzYjMOE81NJznE-V&amp;c=qtCidSiwI35WHaFGYc64KG0PsTuUBCFuAeWHszDN2GT186ghY6QpXA==&amp;ch=-AYmwQ9vdQbDSkt6vKthHIl6bQms7Vt73AmHMZsF7H0XCdJrw30Trw==" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window">Americans struggling to afford rent is on the rise and low-income renters are hit the hardest.</a></p>
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<p><em>By contrast, 68 percent of families with what the Department of Housing and Urban Development terms &quot;severe housing cost burdens&quot; - those who pay more than half of their income for housing - have incomes below $20,000. &nbsp;Yet only 22 percent of federal housing spending assists families in that income range. This imbalance means, for example, that households with incomes above $200,000 received an average of $6,406 in housing subsidies in 2014,&nbsp;</em><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001cuHrkfT-ve6gajdUQUhZX8D4sPym5FGS7HUrljW3r5UfB0OJiD-U8vcfP_TGuwmle6_8UB5eUyI-LRwlDTierbbJDm3_2Hd_A4jQQZZsHxC49YKt_hmBaEVZj_AWKeL4zB8Bq0ApYqHRfATA0RmoBa2Tq0TeJIqOYEtMtiYLhpvLoTm81jIdBGZq0sBn5FpVjhYyH_fnbuz5qizCUA302q9u4Rk7PV3_5EQ_UUuRDgjKpngQ6fmVBk48OAVBaue-n-pBrw4ZSmmozQotWqrRpVHc_PdpJMXr3WbPXHmvRS7xbs-o-a6h_g==&amp;c=qtCidSiwI35WHaFGYc64KG0PsTuUBCFuAeWHszDN2GT186ghY6QpXA==&amp;ch=-AYmwQ9vdQbDSkt6vKthHIl6bQms7Vt73AmHMZsF7H0XCdJrw30Trw==" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window"><em>four times more</em></a><em>&nbsp;than the average household below $20,000. The mismatch between housing spending and needs has severe consequences for low-income families, especially children.&nbsp;</em><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001cuHrkfT-ve6gajdUQUhZX8D4sPym5FGS7HUrljW3r5UfB0OJiD-U8vcfP_TGuwmltHOfuqPrNLj2eLp5fadl7YEHnLPCNeW03IsbAnN9SVNRADx92lVfF0KhRROGzEFXQSGKqF8JSvRhI0h6yk7DFJjSUEXyR2ItQMax1CSW_opXXwSEP7wbnAOvoNxQfQt0ia7RpLjh9H--YOlMwSOuQw6Xo2_Uf_5qHaJs4w57Uzz88r7uQ8xnAqhAAMhZxJnM4F5H3z7FkX3fdNN2Brzmg5GzfJgY-gDskDQs4HNA6Sou_p7Y0eeXQKSHwzmLR0lZ&amp;c=qtCidSiwI35WHaFGYc64KG0PsTuUBCFuAeWHszDN2GT186ghY6QpXA==&amp;ch=-AYmwQ9vdQbDSkt6vKthHIl6bQms7Vt73AmHMZsF7H0XCdJrw30Trw==" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window">&nbsp;<em>Three-fourths</em></a><em>&nbsp;of low-income families eligible for federal rental assistance don&#39;t receive it due to&nbsp;</em><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001cuHrkfT-ve6gajdUQUhZX8D4sPym5FGS7HUrljW3r5UfB0OJiD-U8vcfP_TGuwml-Dg4deVeZ-7JtBAlOiKPSPngVgngO6_s_s1aT93gV2SxrEoTbENSGHx0pCYJ-EwvDIwUJGi8eCgNJw9crMFyAKUyzJiHbNpXTICg4GttazmoXh3JGCdLnco-gq5g3aQCHzoZRTOCE7u84mnTkHoFa0owuSrRh-E5ACe7xWFYQPWQtVCNo3a9yL1N_5YhAuU7oMxDl_JJVj2j9ecPUVl4v-bwVkdDY_aHAbUPubUOHCUCDHbsohgAQg==&amp;c=qtCidSiwI35WHaFGYc64KG0PsTuUBCFuAeWHszDN2GT186ghY6QpXA==&amp;ch=-AYmwQ9vdQbDSkt6vKthHIl6bQms7Vt73AmHMZsF7H0XCdJrw30Trw==" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window"><em>funding limitations</em></a><em>. ...&nbsp;</em><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001cuHrkfT-ve6gajdUQUhZX8D4sPym5FGS7HUrljW3r5UfB0OJiD-U8vcfP_TGuwml3lYe9uUbNEP8Ilg-h09PQ_kGmawFp8Dmm75rvQRiIxH-gC5KSAruOtut6yNgck24YsPlm1L9EZhpS9bLN2irBEypftECu7mUIs_fI9AfTP65Jr4t40gnMWgBkpm03LX6cOZjxzIKUkf8CNSXUSvCiUXCik3URqf-YLwu3Q68Xl18Z7j9PRPiGH0ecT7Iy-ygzeKKCwh7L_NGn-akmTFEI49znetz-XYCyRHOngFj1_O8H0S0ySwlyQ==&amp;c=qtCidSiwI35WHaFGYc64KG0PsTuUBCFuAeWHszDN2GT186ghY6QpXA==&amp;ch=-AYmwQ9vdQbDSkt6vKthHIl6bQms7Vt73AmHMZsF7H0XCdJrw30Trw==" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window"><em>Research</em></a><em>&nbsp;shows that low-income families with children without rental assistance are more likely to experience homelessness, frequent moves, and overcrowding than similar families with assistance. &nbsp;</em></p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>