Tagged: WRKF News

Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne is looking ahead to 2016. At the Baton Rouge Press Club today, Dardenne anticipated that Gov. Jindal would be running for president and indicated he would consider running to be the chief executive of Louisiana.

The federal Affordable Care Act requires states to have health insurance exchanges. This Friday, Nov.16, is the deadline for states to tell the government whether they will set up exchanges on their own or let the federal government do it for them.

Gov. Bobby Jindal confirmed to the Huffington Post on Tuesday that Louisiana would not be implementing its own exchange and a rejection letter will be sent to the federal government on Friday.

David Hood is an adviser for the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana on healthcare issues. He thinks the insurance exchanges will ultimately save the state and taxpayers money.

WRKF's Ashley Westerman asked him how that's possible when they are expected to cost millions of dollars annually to run.

The gap between rich and poor in Louisiana is continuing to grow steadily, according to an analysis of the latest Census figures.

In the Bayou state, the top 20 percent made 9 times more than the bottom 20 percent in 2010. Based on that measure, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute rank Louisiana as the sixth worst state for income inequality.

Louisiana's worst year for West Nile virus in a decade continues into the fall season. On Friday the state Department of Health and Hospitals reported 12 new West Nile virus cases, and two more West Nile-related deaths.