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M o n d ay, M ay 5, 2025
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Hospitals in La. fear potential cut to Medicaid
SUNDAY @ JAZZ FEST
Congress debates changes to provider taxes BY MARK BALLARD | Staff writer STAFF PHOTOS By DAVID GRUNFELD
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue close the last day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans on Sunday.
SHOW STOPPER Lenny Kravitz, Trombone Shorty trade sit-ins on Jazz Fest’s final day
The 2025 Jazz Fest closed on a sunsplashed Sunday with flawless festival weather. In a year when the weather was good overall, Mother Nature saved the absolute best for last. Thus, a solid, comfortably-sized crowd was on hand to see southwest Louisiana singersongwriter Zachary Richard lead listeners at the Sheraton Fais Do-Do in a mass imitation of crawfish claws. Keith Spera The big crowd awaiting a Frankie Beverly tribute and MORE @ Patti LaBelle at the JAZZ FEST Congo Square Stage first traveled south to Mexico with Banda INSIDE MS de Sergio Lizárä See more raga. The dozen horn players and the other photos. musicians and singPage 1B, 2B ers wore matching black pants, shirts ONLINE and jackets with sparkling shoulders. Their tuba carried “Tragos de Amargo Licor,” with an accordion dancing over a waltz-time rhythm in between surges of big band horns and pleading vocals. When Jazz Fest’s scheduling cubes were first released, Galactic’s closing day show on the main Festival Stage did not include Irma Thomas, even
Lisa and David Wurtzel dance to the music of Bette Landry & the Jukes at the Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage on Sunday.
as a “blowout” on the afternoon Coast Guard of April 26 near Garden Island the incident the U.S. Coast federalized response Bay, Guard described for days as an “uncontrolled discharge” was late last week
coming from an oil well that had been put in inactive status nearly a decade ago by a previAn 82-year-old oil well drilled ous owner, federal emergency before the Allies turned the reports say. tide of World War II was spewBut, in hopes of future producing an undefined amount of oil, tion, Well 59 was never permagas and water skyward and into nently plugged by that or succesthe coastal marshes of southern sive owners, according to state Plaquemines Parish for more oil and gas records. than a week. ä See OIL, page 5A First reported by the operator
Landry pushes for car insurance bill Legislation would give commissioner right to reject rate increases BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer
Well spewing oil in marsh will be difficult to cap BY DAVID J. MITCHELL | Staff writer
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ä See MEDICAID, page 4A
Lenny Kravitz and his band perform on the Festival Stage during the last day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
ä See JAZZ FEST, page 3A
WEATHER HIGH 80 LOW 71
WASHINGTON — As Republicans in Congress debate potential cuts or changes to Medicaid, one proposal could have a particularly large impact on Louisiana, which has one of the highest rates of residents on the program. Conservative lawmakers say provider taxes are artificially inflating how much the federal government pays and should be halted. But Louisiana health care leaders fear stopping the taxes could leave many people, particularly in rural areas, without good health care coverage. A group of 20 conservatives, including Rep. Clay Higgins Higgins, R-Lafayette, demanded in a letter Thursday that Congress “address the money laundering.” They are referring to provider taxes, which states impose on hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and other facilities. The federal government pays most of the costs of Medicaid, with the states kicking in part. When states use provider fees to increase how much they pay for Medicaid, that means the federal share of funding increases. The state then pays the providers who are taxed to administer Medicaid services. Initially approved by Congress in 1991, provider taxes have become a conservative cause célèbre. Restricting provider taxes could save the federal government $600 billion over the next decade, according to the
PHOTO PROVIDED By U.S. COAST GUARD
Some of the nearly 3 miles of containment boom corral oily water in coastal marshes in the Bird’s Foot Delta of the Mississippi River as skimmers and other vessels work to clean up the product on Thursday. Absorbent bales can be seen around marsh islands and shores. A mix of oil, gas and water was spewing from oil well near Garden Island Bay in southern Plaquemines Parish.
The biggest vote of the 3-week-old legislative session came Wednesday when the House had to decide whether to side with Gov. Jeff Landry or Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple and powerful business interests on a bill that would affect car insurance rates. Political insiders beforehand said the vote on Landry House Bill 148 could go either way. The bill sought by Landry would give Temple the right to reject excessive rate increases without backing up his decision with hard data — an authority he doesn’t now Temple have and doesn’t want. Landry said the insurance commissioner needs more tools to hold down rates, adding it would be the commissioner’s fault if that didn’t happen after getting those powers.
Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
ä See BILL, page 4A
12TH yEAR, NO. 266