And the hits just keep coming.
Bobby Jindal, a little distracted in his presidential campaign by his pesky job back home in Louisiana, has yet more legal problems piling up on his desk.
Meanwhile, Jindal, laser focused on becoming the leader laughingstock of the free world, offered up one of his most confusing diatribes yet while on his 99-county tour of Iowa, offering conflicting comments that any reporter worth his press credentials should be salivating over about now.
As the infamous north Louisiana hospital deals, complete with a contract containing 50 blank pages, begins its inevitable collapse (predicted by just about anyone with an IQ higher than a cluster of wet Spanish moss), complete with litigation and a backdoor public relations campaign by the current operator of the LSU Medical Center in Shreveport and E.A. Conway in Monroe, yet another lawsuit has been slipped under the door.
The first court hearing for a lawsuit against the state Office of Group Benefits (OGB), the Office of the Governor and the state Division of Administration will be conducted July 27 in Baton Rouge District Court before Judge Janice Clark. The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m.
And guess who the state’s defense attorney will be? Yep, you got it. Jimmy Faircloth who has enjoyed about as much courtroom success as Wiley E. Coyote in pursuit of the elusive roadrunner. The only thing missing from Faircloth’s courtroom misadventures are anvils and dynamite. In representing the state in the OGB litigation, Faircloth will be adding to more than the $1.5 million he has already received in other representations. It’s not all Faircloth’s fault of course; he has been given some dogs to defend by this hapless administration.
The lawsuit was brought by a group of state employees, teachers and retirees, who are asking the court to overturn changes to OGB’s health plans that took effect March 1—premium increases and reduced coverage that were predicted by LouisianaVoice way back when the privatization of OGB was first proposed by the Jindal administration.
Representing the plaintiffs is J. Arthur Smith III of the Smith Law Firm of Baton Rouge.
The plaintiffs are claiming that changes forced on them by OGB were not enacted legally and they were denied a reasonable opportunity, as required by the Louisiana Administrative Procedure Act, to comment on the proposed changes. The plaintiffs further maintain that the OGB and the administration violated due process, the contracts clause of the Louisiana Constitution and their fiduciary duties to plan participants. The plaintiffs also say that increased costs and decreased benefits pose a financial hardship that limits their access to healthcare services and needed medicines.
An association formed to fund the lawsuit, LA VERITE’ 2015, is registered with the Louisiana Secretary of State. LA VERITE’ is French for TRUTH, and stands for Louisiana Voices of Employees and Retirees for Insurance Truth and Equity. There are no dues and membership is open to any active or retired state employee, teacher, or other interested individual.
Plaintiff Marilee Cash, a retiree, said the goal of the lawsuit is to protect approximately 230,000 state employees, teachers, retirees and their dependents who have health insurance through the Office of Group Benefits. “Large increases in out-of-pocket expenses, combined with withheld pay increases for active employees and cost-of-living adjustments for retirees, pose a financial hardship for many people covered by OGB,” she said. “Our compensation has not kept up with inflation during Gov. Jindal’s administration, due to mismanagement of state funds and poor fiscal decisions. Before March 1, our healthcare costs and insurance premiums were manageable. Now these increased costs have put healthcare services out of reach for many dedicated public servants and retirees.”
The administration claims the changes were made to preserve the Group Benefits reserve, which has been drastically reduced as OGB reduced premium revenue while paying out increasing medical claims expenses. The fund, created by the premiums paid by those who are insured, stood at about $500 million just two years ago. Less than half that amount remains. The Jindal administration drew down the reserve by reducing employer contributions in order to balance the state budget and then using money saved from reduced employer contributions to patch holes in the state budget.
In Iowa, Jindal took what might be considered an ill-advised swipe at President Obama and the U.S. Supreme Court (you know, the court he said several days ago should be abolished) at the Family Leadership Summit over the weekend.
At issue was the court’s ruling on the court’s recent same-sex marriage decision that prohibits discrimination against gays by businesses.
“The next president should do what we did in Louisiana,” he said: “issue an executive order saying the federal government will not discriminate or take action against any individual or business that has a traditional view of marriage.”
But wait. Isn’t the ACLU suing Jindal over his May 19 executive order that he issued after the legislature shot down a bill by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Bossier City) to pass the Marriage and Conscience Act?
And wait again. Didn’t Jindal recently go a little ballistic over executive orders issued by President Obama?
Yep. As a matter of fact, after calling on the next president to issue an executive order like his, he turned right around and said…Wait. We want to make that a separate paragraph:
“We’ve got a president who has made it a consistent practice to ignore the Constitution, ignore the laws, issue executive orders,” Jindal said as he promised that if he is elected president, he would immediately rescind Obama’s “illegal” executive orders.
So, on the one hand, he wants to rescind Obama’s “illegal” executive orders while proposing that the next president (presumably himself) to issue an illegal executive order identical to his own “Marriage and Conscience” order—illegal because the governor may issue executive orders pertaining to the executive branch of government only and not on matters that affect private sector action of any kind, according to ACLU executive director Marjorie Esman.
But hey. Once again LouisianaVoice implores you to remember that it was a Jindal operative who told Division of Administration employees in a meeting, “Let’s not be bound by the law.” If that’s not downright Nixonian, then up is down, down is up, and Brenda Lee was acid rock.
Any bets as to who will be representing the state on the ACLU litigation?
We’re reminded of the joke that (and we’re paraphrasing to fit the situation here) Jindal is a lot like a slinky: Not really good for anything but they still bring a smile when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Except Jindal’s not a slinky. He’s more like a train wreck and the damage inflicted when he went off the rails was widespread and massive—and it impacted every one of us.
Louisiana Voice 
As the widow of a retired state employee I was so happy with my Group Benefits health insurance, even though I have resided in Texas since my husband’s death twenty years ago. But this year I was forced to give it up as the new policy did not work for me because I no longer recide in Louisiana. I know that no matter what comes of this lawsuit, I shall probably never be able to go back to that insurance for which my husband worked hard and contributed to for 30 years.
ALSO, think about who is footing the bills for the State of Louisiana defense in all of these law suits? You and me, Louisiana tax payers. And, I caution electing or re-electing anyone that has supported the Republican Agenda during Jindal’s term.
A plaintiff must offer a big sigh of relief and promise God to make a donation to charity in thanksgiving when he finds out he is going up against defense attorney Jimmy Faircloth. Mr. Faircloth is about as good at defending Louisiana in court as Roseanne Barr is at singing the national anthem at a ball game.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers must love to see Faircloth at the defense table. I think it was C.B.Forgotston who said that in light of Faircloth’s negative success rate, the state could have used an assistant attorney general to defend the state and the Jindal administration in all of these suits. They could not have done worse. They might have succeeded.
Attorneys don’t like to deal with Faircloth for a few reasons. Besides being an asshat, he has the full purse strings of the state behind him. His usual purpose seems to delay, distract, obstruct, and burn money. He can drag things out for years because it’s financially feasible to do so. When you are a scheming lawyer, you don’t care if you win or not. It’s all about getting paid and milking the system.
Getting paid from OUR purse!
The shift in mental health benefits to Magellan translated into a $30 hour decrease in reimbursement.
So glad to see this OGB lawsuit launched. As someone who witnessed every step in the deliberate devolution of our formerly excellent health insurance benefit by back room privatization, I know we retirees & state employees have a strong case for victory despite the dirty & expensive tricks sure to be employed by Faircloth. Who knows what justice can be had at this point? But with Jindal on the way out & John Bel Edwards on the way in (be positive everyone), state employees should at least get a fair hearing over the illegal acts committed against them.
Hopefully, if Louisiana ever gets another dime of revenue going, some may be committed to restitution over this wrong instead of just funding future big tax breaks for out of town billionaires. We can’t go home again, but we at least need affordable & DEFINED options for healthcare. As is now, no one (at least no one you can talk to) knows in for sure in advance how much that lab work, x-Ray or mammogram that used to be free as preventive care is going to cost you. This is a disaster in the making for BCBSLA. Breast cancer is a lot more expensive to pay for than a mammogram.
As Jindal hoped, people who have access to other insurance options are leaving the state policy & those who stay are skipping healthcare because they can’t afford the extra charges. I think most OGB participants would agree to a slightly higher premium as long as benefits were good & DEFINED without unclear annual deductibles & out of pocket charges. I was fearing 60, but now I wish I was 65 & could take my chances with Medicare even with its current problems. Shame on Jindal, BCBSLA & everyone else involved in this disaster which is sure to cost many state employees their good health & their lives.
I am a retired state employee who was forced to drop out of Group Benefits plan because I live out-of-state, which was not an issue before Jindal. I assume I will never be able to get it back, even if the lawsuit is won.
If you don’t get proper preventive healthcare while you’re young, you won’t have to worry about Medicare, because you won’t live long enough to avail yourself of it. That’s a big cha-Ching savings to the 1%’s who pay all those taxes for the deadbeat working class losers.
Thanks, Tom & Veritas, for your efforts!
Please let the public know that David Vitter is Jindal’s man. Vitter is interfering with the north LA health services and the head Dr. is contributing to his campaign for Gov. I’m sure Willis Knghton leaders are too. We don’t need Vitter in LA.
I’m pretty sure Vitter is NOT Jindal’s man. The two don’t even get along. Jindal did not endorse Vitter’s last re-election effort and it made for some bad blood between the two.
My husband is a Louisiana state retiree and did not work sufficient quarters to receive Social Security, but I did, and we switched to Medicare as our primary insurer as soon as we were eligible, with OGB as secondary insurer. I’m so thankful we did, because what was once an excellent health plan throughout most of our lives has gone downhill ever since. Medicare works well for us, and we have few complaints.
June, if for some reason you move out of state as I did, you will find it unaffordable to keep, even as your secondary.
We have no plans to move out of state, but, if we did, I suppose we could find alternatives for secondary. It’s a damned shame what Jindal did to OBG. My husband worked for the state for over 35 years, and we were well pleased with the health plan. Jindal should be barred from serving in public office ever again for what he did to the State of Louisiana.
June, I came to San Antonio twenty years ago to be near family after my husband’s death. My OBG insurance was the envy of all my friends here in Texas. Someone suggested that I shouldn’t be able to keep it since I no longer am paying taxes in Louisiana. I explained that my husband had paid into that account for 30 years. I agree about Jindal, and I’m not sure he shouldn’t be in jail. Why did folks in Louisiana vote against their own best interests. I even know retired LA state employees who are big in the Tea Party.
Avery, I don’t say this lightly, but I find myself hoping that some of Jindal’s machinations turn out to be illegal, and he ends up in prison. He’s done far worse damage to the state than Edwin Edwards ever did.
I too am a retired state employee affected by the OGB changes. This situation should inform our votes in this fall’s elections. We do not need another Republican who caters to ALEC, the Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist before considering the needs of we, the people of Louisiana. Every present and former state employee should encourage friends and family to support John Bel Edwards for Governor. Take the State of Louisiana off of the “For Sale” blocks.
Also, June Butler, Republicans are working to defund Medicare (and Social Security). Anybody who buys into their fear-mongering talking points and votes R is hurting themselves in all areas….unless they are one of the few 1%. Bush’s “HAVES” are the only tax payers (excuse the contradiction in terms) who benefit from loopholes, itemized write-offs, capitol gains, depreciation, running personal items through corporations, deferred compensation, all the many ways the moneyed (think Romney, a multi-millionaire whose less than 15% tax bracket is obscene) avoid taxes and stick the middle class.
Perhaps at the scene of the shooting in Lafayette, a reporter should’ve asked BJ whether the shot teacher would be able to pay her new health insurance deductible and increased co-pays put upon her by his administration for her hospital treatment. Perhaps a reporter should’ve asked BJ if any of the victims had no health insurance because of his refusal to extend Medicaid to the potentially eligible victims of this random gun violence at the theater and wouldn’t have that been better than just praying and hoping for their recovery. Thank goodness this shooting did not happen in North Baton Rouge—where Earl K. Long Hospital and BR General’s ER are both no longer. Not everyone has the means to helicopter from place to place like the esteemed and mostly absent “leader” of this State.
When I lived in Shreveport, I worked as both the Medical Director for Willis Knighton Health Systems and a staff member of the Pediatric Department of the LSU Medical Center. For years, there has been a symbiotic relationship between the two systems that has been beneficial for the community. It is beyond pathetic that the Biomedical Research Foundation is trying to blame the President of Willis Knighton, Jim Elrod, for their own ineptitude in managing the hospital. When a new governor is elected, I hope one of the first things he does is to remove control of the Hospital System from the BRF and let the Medical School resume management.
Pat Robinson M.D.