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Births in La. drop to lowest point in decades
Medicare Advantage under scrutiny Critics say plan exaggerates health conditions, overcharges
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Kenyia Boyd reads to Noah Hall recently at the Heavenly Care Child Development Center 3 in Alexandria. In 2024, just over 52,000 babies were born in Louisiana, according to preliminary data. That’s a 17% drop from 2013, when more than 63,000 births were recorded.
State has a shrinking number of women of childbearing age, data shows
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
For many families in Louisiana, staying close to home was long the norm. Maw Maw and Paw Paw might live just down the street, if not in the same house. “Where’d you go to high school?” is a common introductory question. For years, population growth in Louisiana came more from the people who were born here and stayed than from newcomers. But the patterns are shifting. In 2024, just over 52,000 babies were born in Louisiana, according to preliminary data. That’s a 17% drop from 2013, when more than 63,000 births were recorded. It’s the lowest
number of births the state has seen in decades. The decline began gradually around 2015 but has accelerated in recent years. While fertility rates are falling across the country, Louisiana’s trend is amplified by a loss of women in their reproductive years. “There would be two reasons: Some moved out of state and some aged out of that age bracket,” said Allison Plyer, chief demographer at The Data Center in New Orleans. From 2013 to 2023, the number of women aged 15 to 44 in Louisiana fell by more than 29,000, a 3.1% decline. Nationally, that group grew by nearly 5%. Louisiana still has a higher fertility rate than the national average
at about 60 births per 1,000 women, compared with 54.5 nationally. That means women in their reproductive years are more likely to have kids here than elsewhere. But even here, the fertility rate fell by 10.3% over the past decade. Experts point to several reasons why people are having fewer children: economic uncertainty, the high cost of child care and housing, changing attitudes toward parenting, and growing infertility. Over half of Louisiana adults have post-high school credentials now, a record high, according to the state Board of Regents. But jobs in the state haven’t kept up.
ä See BIRTHS, page 4A
‘Doubling down’ on Quarter’s future years after Ida, Jax Brewery renovations nearly complete
PAGE 6B
Gulf ‘dead zone’ nearly size of Connecticut this summer Some money to help address it may be cut
Staff writer
Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 91 LOW 78
ä See MEDICARE, page 4A
BY MIKE SMITH
BY JONAH MEADOWS Nearly four years after Hurricane Ida tore the roof off one of the historic Jax Brewery buildings and tossed it into the middle of Decatur Street, the five-story structure has undergone more than $10 million in renovations and is set to welcome a third new tenant, bringing its total occupancy up to 80%. The renovation is breathing new life into the facility, which helped reinvent New Orleans’ downtown riverfront in the mid-1980s and has since weathered the ups and downs
WASHINGTON — Medicare Advantage, the privately run insurance on which roughly 500,000 older Louisiana residents rely for health care, is facing calls for change in Congress. Though hugely popular, critics say Medicare Advantage programs exaggerate patients’ health conditions to receive more money from the federal government. They argue that it is draining the Medicare Trust Fund, which will run out of money in 2033, according to the fund’s report released two weeks ago. “Medicare is going insolvent, and our budget deficit is expanding. We need to stop overpaying where we can if we’re to preserve Medicare for Americans who rely on it,” said U.S. Sen Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge. Cassidy has proposed changes he says would limit the practice called “upcoding.” The Congressional Budget Office estimated that changes to upcoding would save about $124 billion over 10 years. AARP, the nationwide interest group that advocates for seniors, backs Cassidy’s push. “Upcoding leads to both inflated payments and higher premiums,” said Denise Bottcher, state director of AARP Louisiana in Baton Rouge. “You’re just driving up the costs of health care.”
STAFF PHOTO By JOHN McCUSKER
The Jax Brewery Millhouse, the smaller, upriver of the two structures in New Orleans’ French Quarter, has been fully renovated since Hurricane Ida. The newest addition is a Museum of Illusions coming onto the Decatur Street side of the second floor and the expansion of Messina’s Catering into the fourth floor. WWOZ has new fifth floor studios and the atrium has been redone. that have mirrored the local and national economy. Ryan Berger, one of the building’s owners, said the decision to overhaul the property
represents a “doubling down” Authority’s ferry terminal and on the future of the French Spanish Plaza, the expansion Quarter. of Caesars hotel and casino, It comes amid improveä See BREWERY, page 5A ments to the Regional Transit
The Gulf “dead zone” off Louisiana’s coast was nearly the size of Connecticut this summer, researchers reported Thursday, even as the Trump administration proposes cuts to some federal funding intended to help address the pollution that contributes to it. Despite the gargantuan size of the low-oxygen zone, covering an area across nearly the entire Louisiana coast west of the Mississippi River, it was smaller than predicted and slightly below the long-term average. But it’s currently more than twice the size of expectations in a plan to successfully curb it by 2035. Federal officials said states have made progress on reducing certain types of nutrient pollution flowing down the Mississippi, which leads to what has become known as the “dead zone” each summer. But they acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 de-
Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
ä See DEAD ZONE, page 5A
12TH yEAR, NO. 357