Photo Illustration/WikimediaBATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration looks to balance next year's budget, Louisiana's health care programs are threatened with even steeper cuts than the higher education slashing that has caused such worry.
Cuts for services that take care of the poor, elderly and disabled could reach up to $800 million in lost state and federal funding for the year that begins July 1, under scenarios being considered.
But the state Department of Health and Hospitals won't provide any details about what the cuts could mean and which services might be on the chopping block.
DHH refused to provide any documents about possible cut scenarios, in response to a public records request filed by The Associated Press. The department claimed the records were exempt from disclosure under state law.