‘COSBY SHOW’ ACTOR MALCOLM-JAMAL WARNER DIES 7A
N O L A.C O M
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T u e s d ay, J u ly 22, 2025
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Prices rising on insurance maketplace Rule changes affecting Affordable Care Act cost, availability
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — Long before the recently enacted changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will be felt by the 1.86 million Louisianans on Medicaid, the new law likely will start pushing many Affordable Care Act beneficiaries off their private insurance, experts say. Myriad rule changes will even-
tually start touching many of the 785,000 Louisiana residents who enrolled in Medicaid as part of the expansion of the law dubbed “Obamacare.” More immediately, however, 292,994 self-employed or lowerincome Louisiana workers who acquired their insurance another way, through an Affordable Care Act marketplace, will have to pay dramatically higher prices when
they start applying Nov. 1 for their coverage next year. Insurers have filed for rate increases — at a median monthly cost of 15% more — for plans sold on the HealthCare.gov website, according to a Friday analysis by KFF, a San Francisco-based health policy research organization. A key part of the Affordable Care Act gives subsidies to buy insurance to people who make too
much money to qualify for Medicaid but financially struggle to buy private policies on their own. Generally, that’s defined as a household of four making between $48,226 and $66,625 annually but under some conditions up to $128,600. The state’s median household income is $60,023, about $20,000 below the national figure. The enhanced tax credits are scaled to income levels depend-
N.O. officials blindsided by Cantrell sanitation contract
ing on the health care insurance plan bought. Just like the private insurance bought through the workplace, different plans provide various options for coverage and thus range in price. In Louisiana, the Affordable Care Act credits made buying insurance easier for people who started making too much money and lost their Medicaid qualification, said Stacey Roussel, deputy director of Invest in Louisiana, a
ä See PRICES, page 4A
Senate opening prompts scramble Election to follow Bouie’s move to SUNO chancellor
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
issue a rescission letter to IV Waste,” Torri said, speaking at a City Council committee meeting alongside Threat and Montaño. The next morning, Torri said he got a text from the mayor’s chief of staff, Clifton Davis, instructing him to issue a “notice to proceed” to Henry Consulting, setting off a day filled with confusion as officials scrambled to figure out what happened. Later that afternoon, Cantrell notified Montaño in an email she had “gained the confidence needed to stand by the initial decision” to terminate the IV Waste
The news that state Sen. Joseph Bouie will become the new chancellor of Southern University of New Orleans will, no doubt, set off a scramble of candidates to run for his seat. But that scramble can’t begin until Senate President Cameron Henry decides on the election date, and he has a lot to sort through first. “Let’s wait until everybody does what they have to do, and then we’ll figure it out,” Henry, R-Metairie, said Monday. Bouie The first step, Henry said, is for Bouie to decide when he’ll resign. Bouie said that would be in either September or October. In the meantime, he will become the new SUNO chancellor on Aug. 1. He said he can hold both jobs temporarily because state senator is a part-time job, and the Legislature is not in session. Bouie, D-New Orleans, said a major factor in his decision is how to minimize the loss of services to his 120,000 constituents in District 3 while the seat is vacant. “I don’t want to leave my constituents hanging,” Bouie said Monday. About 80% of District 3 is in Orleans Parish, with the other 20% in St. Bernard Parish. The district, which includes Gentilly and parts of New Orleans East, was drawn by legislators in
ä See SANITATION, page 4A
ä See SENATE, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
IV Waste employees pressure wash the sidewalk in front of Jackson Square on Monday.
Three aides say mayor backed out of keeping emergency deal with IV Waste BY BEN MYERS Staff writer
Three senior city officials said Mayor LaToya Cantrell agreed this month to keep IV Waste working on its emergency sanitation contract in the French Quarter and Downtown Development District through the end of the year, and then blindsided them by tapping Henry Consulting for that job instead. At a City Council committee meeting Monday, officials detailed their private back-and-forth with Cantrell over a sanitation contract dispute that has made na-
tional headlines, spurred television ads and spawned pro-IV Waste signs all over the French Quarter. Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Joe Threat and Sanitation Director Matt Torri said they expressed serious doubts about Henry Consulting’s readiness for the job in a meeting with Cantrell on July 8, and the mayor agreed to rescind her termination of IV Waste. A letter to IV Waste had already been drafted to that effect. “We left that meeting in agreement that we would continue that path, that we would
Indicted ex-head of 911 center tossed from N.O. mayor’s race BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
Tyrell Morris, the indicted former head of New Orleans’ 911 communications center, was disqualified from his nascent mayoral campaign on Monday, along with a host of other hopefuls for city office whose claims about filing their taxes were challenged in court.
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ELECTION 2025 Morris turned away a process server over the weekend and then failed to show up at Orleans Parish Civil District Court on Monday to defend his candidacy for city’s top job. Voter Robert Collins had challenged Morris’ candidacy, claim-
ing Morris lied when he marked on his qualifying form that he’d filed his state tax returns for the previous five tax years. Morris Judge Jennifer Medley appointed a curator — attorney and former Jefferson
Parish Council member Mark Spears — to sit in for Morris before she agreed that he, in fact, had not filed his state taxes since 2021. Medley also fined Morris the $750 cost for Spears’ services. “He did not file returns at all (for those years), and yet certified under oath, under penalty of perjury, that he did,” said attorney Bob Ellis, who represented Col-
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lins, a diesel mechanic. Ellis’ firm led several of the Orleans Parish challenges. Morris, who appeared Sunday at an online candidate forum for Voters East of the Industrial Canal, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment. He could appeal the ruling.
ä See MORRIS, page 5A
12TH yEAR, NO. 344