Gulf States Receive Health Care Grants
By BEN EVANS
WASHINGTON – Three Gulf Coast states whose health care networks were crippled by Hurricane Katrina will be eligible to receive $175 million in grants, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt announced Thursday.
About $160 million will be made available for hospitals and nursing facilities. Louisiana is slated to get the largest share, about $71.6 million, while $60.5 million would go to Mississippi and $27.8 million to Alabama.
Some lawmakers who met Thursday with Leavitt in the Capitol said much more money is needed. Residents are struggling to get quality care, they said, and uncertainty over the issue is a major reason many families have not moved back to devastated areas.
“This is a help for us. We’re grateful. But we have a true mental health crisis in our state and severe health care issues that have to be addressed,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.
Landrieu also suggested that Louisiana, which sustained the most damage, should get a larger share.
The grants would help hospitals, clinics and nursing centers which face an acute shortage of doctors, nurses and other workers, many of whom left the area after the storm. The labor shortage has caused wages to spike, leaving medical centers in a financial bind.
“This will be useful to the hospitals in being able to keep them financially solvent,” Leavitt said.
In addition to the $160 million for hospitals and nursing facilities, another $15 million was set aside for Louisiana to help the New Orleans area attract doctors and other providers.
Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., said the money will help in the short-term but that Louisiana needs a broader strategy for rebuilding its health care network.
“We need a plan to make sure that people feel comfortable bringing their families back, that there will be somewhere they can go to get their health care, and employees will be comfortable bringing employees back,” Jindal said.
Leavitt said he would be back in New Orleans within the next two weeks to discuss those plans.
The money is among the last of a $2 billion appropriation approved last year to help hospitals, clinics and nursing centers cope with financial strains from the massive storm that struck in 2005. Last year, HHS released $1.5 billion to help 32 states that treated thousands of hurricane evacuees who lost their jobs and health insurance after the storm.