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Lottery, BP settlement bills clear Alabama legislative committees as special session on Medicaid funding continues
(Update: The Alabama House voted 91-10 Wednesday to pass the BP settlement bill (HB 36). A Senate committee approved the bill Friday, positioning it for a Senate vote Tuesday. SB 11 lost a procedural vote in the Senate on Thursday, greatly reducing its chances of passage. Senators are expected to debate SB 3 on Friday.) Two [...]
Fact Sheet
A long-term budget fix includes Medicaid expansion
As Alabama lawmakers grapple to prevent devastating Medicaid cuts, the time is right to address a related threat to our state: the health coverage gap. Nearly 200,000 Alabama workers we depend on every day – in agriculture, food service, retail, home health and other fields – have no access to regular health care. They have no [...]
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Medicaid cuts loom, payday reform falls just short as Alabama Legislature ends 2016 regular session
The Alabama Legislature’s 2016 regular session, which ended Wednesday, was more notable in many ways for what didn’t happen than for what did. Lawmakers did not agree on a revenue solution to prevent devastating Medicaid cuts that would reduce health care access for hundreds of thousands of children, seniors, and people with disabilities in Alabama. Despite enormous [...]
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Quick overviews of Arise’s 2016 issue priorities
Your time is important, and your voice for a better Alabama is essential. That's why we've prepared these quick overviews to keep you up-to-date on what's happening at the Alabama Legislature on Arise's 2016 issue priorities. We'll update this post as needed. "Ban the box" legislation: 'Ban the box' law would help rebuild lives in Alabama -- The [...]
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Alabama’s education budget begins to rebuild, but General Fund struggles put Medicaid at risk
The usual contrast between Alabama’s starving General Fund (GF) budget and its slightly healthier but still inadequate Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget is exceptionally stark this year. Nearly halfway through the Legislature’s 2016 regular session, both major state budgets have begun to move – in one case toward a predictable conclusion, and in the other [...]
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A budget at last: What got cut, what didn’t, and what’s next for Alabama
Three times proved to be the charm Wednesday night as the Alabama Legislature finally passed a General Fund (GF) budget and accompanying revenue bills. Gov. Robert Bentley signed the budget Thursday morning, a mere two weeks before the start of the 2016 budget year. Tax bills: What passed and what didn’t Alabama faced a GF [...]
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Mental health, DHR, courts would face cuts under Alabama House’s General Fund budget
Mental health care, trial courts and the Department of Human Resources (DHR) would be among the vital services suffering cuts next year under the General Fund (GF) budget that the Alabama House passed 59-37 Friday. A Senate committee is set to consider the GF budget Monday. The House’s budget would fund new reforms of Medicaid [...]
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Alabama Senate committee eases Medicaid cuts, approves budget that Bentley already vetoed
Update: The Alabama Senate passed a no-new-revenue General Fund budget 19-15 Monday, but the House swiftly rejected it 92-2. The first special session ended without a budget, meaning Gov. Robert Bentley will have to call the Legislature back for a second special session. Get ready for another special session. That seems to be the takeaway [...]
Blog
Alabama House passes budget that could end Medicaid in state
Medicaid could end in Alabama under a General Fund (GF) budget that the Alabama House passed Wednesday. Medicaid would lose 23 percent of its state funding, or $156 million, next year under the plan. Lost federal matching money would increase those cuts significantly. Cuts that large could end the Medicaid program in Alabama, State Health Officer [...]
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Medicaid could end under Alabama House committee’s budget
Medicaid could end in Alabama under devastating cuts in a proposed General Fund (GF) budget that the Alabama House’s GF budget committee approved Tuesday, State Health Officer Don Williamson said. About one in five Alabamians would lose their health coverage, including nearly half of Alabama’s children and about 60 percent of the state’s seniors in [...]