Feds authorize limited Medicaid cuts

Feds authorize limited Medicaid cuts

The Obama administration says cash-strapped states can make some Medicaid cuts, but not deep ones.

The Health and Human Services Department said Friday that states can raise premiums and drop a limited number of low-income adults from the rolls.

The changes stop well short of demands by Republican governors to scale back Medicaid enrollment to help balance their budgets. The new health care overhaul generally requires states to keep current eligibility rules.

The administration now says states can raise premiums to reflect inflation, which might discourage some people from signing up. And states can drop coverage for adults making over $14,484, but not if those beneficiaries are pregnant or disabled. Only a small number of states now provide that coverage.

Advocates for low-income people praised the decision.

NYC sale of Lena Horne’s belongings nets $316,000

The estate of sultry jazz singer and actress Lena Horne has sold some of the fancy gowns, jewelry, fine art and books that filled her New York City apartment.

The auction of more than 200 items brought a sales total of $316,000 last week at the Doyle New York auction house. That was double the total the sale was expected to bring in.

Among the items sold was a small Louis Vuitton trunk with stickers inscribed “Lena Horne Hayton” that went for $20,000. It had been estimated at up to $700.

Other items also sold well above their estimated. A reversible mink coat by Horne’s favorite designer, Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo, sold for $8,125. It had been estimated to bring in up to $500.

But an abstract painting by artist Charles Alston that was expected to bring up to $50,000 was sold for $20,000.

Horne died in May at age 92.

Post office to be renamed in Height’s honor

A post office in Washington will be officially renamed in honor of civil rights leader Dorothy Height. It will become the first federal building in the city to be named after a black woman.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who represents the District of Columbia in Congress, introduced the bill to rename the post office. She says Height was proud to be a D.C. resident.

Height was president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. She died last year.

Associated Press