Mississippi has scheduled the execution of a former military recruiter who raped and murdered a teenage waitress in north Mississippi.
Thomas Edwin Loden Jr., 58, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
“After due consideration, the Court finds that Loden has exhausted all state and federal remedies for purposes of setting an execution date,” Chief Justice Michael Randolph wrote in a Thursday order.
Six justices joined Randolph to approve the execution order and the remaining two denied granting the execution.
In 2000, Loden kidnapped 16-year-old Lessa Marie Gray, after seeing her stranded on the side of the road in Dorsey in Itawamba County.
After seeing the girl working at Comer’s Restaurant, he flattened a tire on her car and waited for Gray to leave work, according to court documents. Loden pulled up next to Gray’s car and offered to help, telling her he was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps.
When she replied to his question about wanting to become a Marine, Loden became upset and forced Gray into his van, according to court documents. He sexually assaulted her and then killed her by strangulation and suffocation.
Loden, a gunnery sergeant and a Marine recruiter in Vicksburg, was on a 10-day leave and in the area to visit his grandmother’s farm.
The next day, police found his van on the farm and transported it to New Albany for a state crime scene investigation team to examine, according to court documents. Inside they found Gray’s body.
In 2001, Loden was sentenced to death and an additional 150 years for rape and sexual battery.
He sought appeals and post-conviction relief, but those requests were denied.
In October, the attorney general’s office filed a motion to set an execution date for Loden.
Loden’s attorney asked for the execution to be stayed because a 1983 civil lawsuit he joined challenging the method of execution is still active. The state argued the lawsuit does not challenge Loden’s conviction or sentence.
The last person to be executed in Mississippi was David Neal Cox on Nov. 17, 2021. His execution was the first after a nine-year break.
Quinshon Judkins hurdles for yardage against Texas A & M. (Photo by Joshua McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics)
Deion Sanders was asked earlier this week if he was proud of his son, Shedeur, for being named Jackson State’s finalist for the C Spire Conerly Trophy.
“Well, I’d like to see him win,” Sanders said, chuckling. “We were there last year, got all dressed up and all that. You don’t want to get dressed up and go there and see somebody else win a durn trophy. We’re winners. We want to win.”
Rick Cleveland
Shedeur Sanders surely might win the Conerly. He ranks among the top two or three favorites. He is the quarterback of an undefeated, nationally ranked team. He has thrown 31 touchdowns, just five interceptions. He is resourceful and he is accurate. He is a winner.
But he is no slam dunk.
Quinshon Judkins, the Ole Miss freshman running back, surely deserves strong consideration. At times looking like a reincarnation of the great Walter Payton, Judkins has rushed for 1,117 yards and 15 touchdowns through 10 games. He has been at his best against some of the most talented defenses in the country.
Just look at Judkins’ last four games: 135 yards and two touchdowns against Alabama, 205 yards and a touchdown against Texas A&M, 111 yards and two touchdowns against LSU, 139 yards and two touchdowns against Auburn.
This is no flippant comparison I make to Payton, the greatest all-around back these eyes have ever seen. I once asked Hall of Fame linebacker D.D. Lewis who was the toughest man he ever had to tackle. Lewis laughed before he answered. “Walter Payton, not even close,” D.D. said. “Trying to tackle Walter was like trying to tackle a 210-pound bowling ball.”
Judkins is much like that. Payton was 5 foot, 10 inches tall and weighed 210. Judkins is 5-11 and weighs 210. Judkins, as Payton, explodes through the line. When he gets hit, the battle has just begun. He bounces off defenders, runs through arm tackles, cuts on a dime, and his helmet always comes out at the end of any pile-up. When you tackle Judkins, it hurts you worse than it hurts him, as was always the case with Payton.
Shedeur Sanders passes over Grambling linebacker Joshua Reed.
This is not to say that Quinshon Judkins is another Walter Payton. It’s much too early for that. But keep in mind, Judkins just turned 19 last month. He should only get stronger.
Judkins and Shedeur Sanders have plenty of top-flight company among the Conerly finalists:
Delta State quarterback Patrick Shegog has thrown for 2,485 yards and run for 685 yards for a team that has won 10 games and is about to enter the Division II playoffs.
Mississippi State junior cornerback Emmanuel Forbes ranks second in the nation in pass interceptions with five and has tied a Southeastern Conference record with five career pick-sixes (touchdown interceptions).
Southern Miss wide receiver Jason Brownlee, despite USM playing musical quarterbacks due to injuries, has caught 44 passes for 687 yards and six touchdowns. He’s tall, rangy and fast. You will be watching Brownlee on Sundays.
Alcorn running back Jarveon Howard leads the SWAC in rushing with 1,174 yards. Howard, a Syracuse transfer, runs with both power and speed and has scored 11 touchdowns.
Other finalists include Mississippi Valley State defensive tackle Ronnie Thomas, Belhaven linebacker Conner Fordham, Mississippi College running back Marcus Williams, and Millsaps wide receiver/kick returner Moise Tezzo.
Important to note: Each finalist was selected by the college or university he represents. The Conerly will be presented at a banquet Nov. 29 at the Country Club of Jackson.
Yes, I have a vote, and, no, I have not decided. The deadline for voting is Nov. 27. There are vitally important games to be played before then.
The head of Greenwood Leflore Hospital said the hospital is working with the city, county and members of the business community to secure the funding needed to keep the hospital open through the legislative session.
The 208-bed hospital is currently operating with a total of 18 inpatient beds.
Interim Chief Executive Officer Gary Marchand said the hospital’s long-term hopes hinge on legislative action and gaining federal Critical Access or Rural Emergency Hospital status. Hospitals with these designations receive enhanced federal payments for certain services among other benefits.
“The legislature will have the opportunity to address a proposed increase in hospital funding for Medicaid and uninsured patients that will help protect the hospital’s cost structure,” Marchand wrote in a memo to employees Thursday.
Though Marchand declined to specify what proposal he was referring to, Richard Roberson of the Mississippi Hospital Association said he was likely referring to an item on the Mississippi Hospital Association’s legislative agenda: additional funding from Medicaid to hospitals.
Hospitals in Mississippi currently receive payments beyond the base rate for Medicaid called “supplemental payments.” These include disproportionate share payments intended to offset hospitals’ uncompensated care costs and improve access for Medicaid and uninsured patients as well as protect hospitals’ finances.
Roberson, the association’s vice president for policy and state advocacy, was not able to provide further details on the amount and type of supplemental funding being proposed on Thursday.
In the meantime, the hospital is working with the city, county and business community to shore up funding.
The move comes after months of negotiations with the University of Mississippi Medical Center ended abruptly earlier this month. Hospital officials said at the time that without an agreement with UMMC to lease the hospital, it could close before the end of the year.
Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at UMMC, said the agreement was not possible due to several factors, the primary one being “the current realities of health care economics that all health systems are facing in this challenging environment.”
UMMC reported a more than $8 million loss in its first quarter of this fiscal year, according to a presentation made by its Chief Financial Officer Nelson Weichold.
More than half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closure, new data from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform shows. The state has the largest number of rural hospitals at immediate risk of closure in the nation at 24.
Editor’s note: Kate Royals, Mississippi Today’s community health editor since January 2022, worked as a writer/editor for UMMC’s Office of Communications from November 2018 through August 2020, writing press releases and features about the medical center’s schools of dentistry and nursing.
A federal appeals court has formally blocked the Biden administration’s student debt cancellation plan, meaning borrowers who expected to see up to $20,000 in loan cancellation this fall must now wait indefinitely for a resolution in the lawsuit.
The issue at hand is, in part, how the plan could affect tax revenue and funding for higher education in Missouri. The state is home to MOHELA, one of the largest student loan holders and servicers in the country, which would lose significant revenue if the federal government closed its accounts through debt forgiveness.
“Whatever the eventual outcome of this case, it will affect the finances of millions of Americans with student loan debt as well as those Americans who pay taxes to finance the government and indeed everyone who is affected by such far-reaching fiscal decisions,”the court wrote.
In Mississippi, Biden’s plan, if enacted, could be a boon in tax revenue as the state plans to tax student debt cancellation as income – the way it typically taxes all forms of debt cancellation. It remains to be seen, however, how the Mississippi Department of Revenue will carry out this plan as servicers are not furnishing the tax forms that borrowers need to file student debt cancellation.
Nearly 439,000 Mississippians have federal student loans that are eligible for debt cancellation, according to the Education Data Initiative, and therefore taxable in Mississippi.
This week’s decision is the result of a lawsuit that made its way to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, filed by six conservative states (Mississippi is not a plaintiff in this lawsuit). The news followed a ruling from a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas that the program, enacted under the Biden administration’s executive authority,is unconstitutional. It is likely the plan will wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The slew of Republican-led lawsuits have already forced the Biden administration to disable the online applicationand make some changes to its plan. In court filings, the department is now signaling it could extend the moratorium on student loan repayment – scheduled to sunset on Dec. 31 of this year – as it expects a “historically large increase in the amount of federal student loan delinquency and defaults as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The department has said it will continue to defend the plan in court. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has twice rejected emergency challenges to the plan.
In a statement, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said that the plan is “lawful and necessary to give borrowers and working families breathing room as they recover from the pandemic and to ensure they succeed when repayment restarts.”
According to the White House, more than half of the 26 million Americans eligible for debt relief were approved. In Mississippi, the plan would have benefited primarily Black, brown and low-income borrowers, who nationally and in Mississippi have higher averages of student debt than white, wealthier borrowers.
The department had initially said it would start approving forgiveness as early as mid-November.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office is appealing a recent court decision which declared giving federal money to private schools is unconstitutional, according to new documents filed Tuesday.
The Legislature gave $10 million to private schools at the end of the 2022 session in early April, a move that frustrated some advocates and legislators. The funding comes from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which gave the Mississippi Legislature $1.8 billion to spend on pandemic response, government services, and infrastructure improvements to water, sewer, and broadband.
The Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Democracy Forward, and the Mississippi Center for Justice brought a lawsuit challenging this allocation on behalf of Parents for Public Schools, a Jackson-based national nonprofit.
The decision, which a Hinds County judge handed down last month, found that the allocation violated section 208 of the Mississippi Constitution, which prohibits giving any public funds to private schools.
Attorneys for the state argued that because the Legislature appropriated the money to the Department of Finance and Administration to run a grant program for private schools, instead of directly to those private schools, these laws did not violate the state constitution.
The decision from Hinds County Chancery Court Judge Crystal Wise Martin rebukes this argument, pointing out that the prohibition on allocating public money to private schools is not limited to any specific government body.
“The state cannot avoid compliance with our Constitution simply by delegating the power to disburse appropriated funds to an executive agency,” the order reads.
Will Bardwell, an attorney with Democracy Forward, said he was not surprised by the appeal.
“Judge Martin’s decision is thorough and well reasoned,” said Bardwell. “We feel very comfortable defending that decision at the Supreme Court.”
The judge separately rejected the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools’ (MAIS) attempt to intervene in the lawsuit. Since private schools had to be a member of MAIS to be eligible for this money, the group sought to become a party to the lawsuit in order to defend the interests of their member schools, but both the state and the attorneys for Parents for Public Schools said MAIS was introducing new legal issues that were not relevant to the case.
MAIS also filed an appeal, challenging both the denial of its attempt to intervene and the overall decision.
The attorney general’s office confirmed their intent to appeal to Mississippi Today. The Supreme Court will now review the case and make further determinations.
Hundreds of thousands of Mississippians fall within what’s called the “coverage gap” — they work lower-paying jobs that do not offer health insurance, but they also do not qualify for traditional Medicaid coverage.
About 12% of Mississippians are uninsured, meaning they cannot afford basic health care, let alone cover the costs of emergency care.
Hospitals, dozens of which are in financial crisis across the state, must provide care to uninsured patients and cover the costs themselves. This has forced several hospitals to close in recent years, and the state’s top health leaders say at least a dozen more are in imminent danger of closing.
Numerous studies have shown that expanding Medicaid — lawmakers choosing to opt into an expanded version of the federal-state health coverage program — would guarantee health care for at least 200,000 primarily working Mississippians who don’t currently have it.
But a handful of state political leaders have rejected expansion for more than a decade, ignoring the nonpartisan, reputable experts who have thoroughly studied the effects of expansion.
Below is an interactive, county-by-county map showing the Mississippi adults who would qualify for Medicaid if state leaders chose to expand.
The high school football playoffs are in full swing as we head into the second round for most of classifications. The Cleveland boys discuss this week’s biggest matchups, and toss around ideas on the 10 Conerly Trophy nominees. Plus, for some reason, they keep bringing up the Saints.
Mississippi’s only burn center has closed. The Delta’s only neonatal intensive care unit has closed. A Jackson hospital that serves vulnerable populations is gutting key services to balance its budget. One of the state’s largest hospitals is months, if not weeks, from shutting its doors for good.
Mississippi hospitals are in crisis, struggling to keep up with rising industry costs and cover care for the sixth-most uninsured population in America. Six hospitals have closed across the state since 2005, and countless more have reduced services and staff.
Even more sobering, the state’s top health care leaders warn that a dozen more hospitals across the state are in imminent danger of closing.
“Things are getting worse, not better,” Dr. Dan Edney, the state’s health officer, said in an October Board of Health meeting. “We know of 10-12 hospitals statewide that may not even be here one year from now … Those of us who are watching this in health care leadership statewide have a lot of concern.”
As the Mississippi health care crisis worsens, the state’s political leaders are facing growing pressure from health care professionals to do something they’ve refused for 12 years: expand Medicaid. Doing so, as 38 states have done, would provide immediate financial relief to the state’s hospitals that are struggling to stay alive, countless economic and health care experts have said.
About 12% of Mississippians are uninsured, leaving hospitals with little to no way to recoup the costs of care administered to some of the nation’s poorest and unhealthiest patients. Hospitals are required to provide life-saving care to everyone, regardless of whether they’re insured. In many cases, those costs are bringing hospitals — including Greenwood Leflore Hospital in the Mississippi Delta — to the brink of closing.
Studies, including one from the state economist, have shown Medicaid expansion would provide health care coverage for at least 200,000 primarily working Mississippians who don’t currently have it. More than $1 billion per year would flow to the state after expansion, and hospitals would directly receive hundreds of millions to cover rising costs. The study also showed Medicaid expansion would create more than 11,000 jobs per year from 2022 to 2027.
“When you have major hospital systems in this state that have lost a quarter billion dollars last year, hospitals that have never had losses having them now and others budgeting for major losses for next year — the number of hospitals close to the brink is the most it’s ever been,” said Tim Moore, president of the Mississippi Hospital Association, an organization that has for years lobbied for Medicaid expansion.
But Gov. Tate Reeves, Speaker of the House Philip Gunn and several powerful political brokers in Jackson have stood firm against even the suggestion of expansion, ignoring the dozens of economic experts who say the state can afford it and that hospitals would be much better off.
“No, I don’t support expanding Medicaid in Mississippi,” Reeves told a Mississippi Today reporter last week during a hospital event in Ocean Springs. “I made, very clear, my position when I was running for governor in 2019. What we’ve got to do in Mississippi is we’ve got to continue to focus on economic development, job creation, bringing better and higher paying jobs to our state.”
The health care landscape in Mississippi — and nationwide — has changed dramatically since Reeves first made that campaign promise. The stresses of the pandemic widened the cracks in already struggling hospital systems. Labor and supplies costs have surged, making even traditionally profitable hospitals reassess their budgets and services.
Reeves recently pushed legislation giving $246 million in state-funded incentives to a steel mill promising 1,000 new jobs in 10 years. It is private sector jobs, Reeves said, that will most benefit the state’s health care.
“People who work in the private sector that have private insurance have typically far better coverage,” he said.
But the state’s leaders have repeated that refrain for many years, and little has budged with either job creation or health care outcomes. Meanwhile, hospitals across the state are scrambling to make up for lost revenue.
One of the state’s largest hospitals, North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, is having to manage higher operating costs while caring for uninsured patients. State Sen. Chad McMahan, a Republican who represents the hospital and surrounding area, stops short of advocating for Medicaid expansion. But unlike many of his GOP colleagues in the Legislature, he wants to debate its merits.
The main reason he’s publicly bucked his party leaders, McMahan says: His local hospital would benefit.
“I’ll tell you how large the hospital is,” McMahan told Mississippi Today. “The hospital is so large that if it were to close, we’d have to have seven Toyota-sized manufacturing plants to replace the economic value and salaries (of the hospital), which means it would never happen in our lifetime. Values of homes would drop 15% overnight. You better believe I’m for health care. I’m for health care because it’s the right thing to do for Mississippians … It’ll sustain our communities, cities and counties.”
Gulfport Memorial Hospital, another major institution whose CEO is a major political donor to Reeves, reported operating costs going up nearly 18% in 2021. They hit operating losses just shy of $67 million for the last fiscal year.
To Gulfport’s east, the Singing River Health System’s CEO is searching for a larger system to buy its publicly-owned Gulf Coast hospitals. The system is not in dire financial straits, but leadership says they’re trying to be proactive before they hit a crisis point.
In his recent announcement of the tax incentives for the steel mill, Reeves did not mention the 600-plus current jobs that are in jeopardy at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. But the major hospital in the Delta could close imminently, leaders warn. They hoped to strike a deal with the state’s only academic hospital – Jackson’s University of Mississippi Medical Center – but those plans dissolved at the beginning of the month.
Greenwood Leflore leaders are trying to stretch their budget to stay open over the next two months with hopes the Mississippi Legislature will step in to save it. Greenwood Leflore interim CEO Gary Marchand has publicly advocated for Medicaid expansion, saying it would go a long way in helping balance the hospital’s budget.
“What’s your plan: To watch Rome burn and to let hospitals close?” said Dr. Gary Wiltz, a Medicaid advocate and the CEO of a system of 19 of rural health clinics in Louisiana. “It goes back to a fundamental question: is health care a right or a privilege?”
Pioneer Community Hospital of Newton on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. The hospital closed in December 2015. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Merit Health Central, a private hospital in Jackson, has moved or is planning to move its cardiovascular services, neonatal intensive care unit and endoscopy to other locations outside of the city. It already closed its burn center – the only in the state to provide specialized care.
Merit Health Central, formerly Hinds General Hospital, has long been a health care and employment hub in south and west Jackson. Merit Health pointed to “the state’s decision to not expand Medicaid” in addition to labor costs and staffing challenges as to why it is scaling back its operations in a statement to Mississippi Today.
Even Mississippi hospitals that may not be in imminent danger of closing are still facing uncovered costs that are beginning to bleed their budgets dry. Masks, surgical supplies, even food and human resource services have all shot up cost – and that’s on top of the charity treatment hospitals incur costs of for patients too poor to pay for care.
Stan Bulger, who serves on the board of directors at Magee General Hospital, said expanding Medicaid would help to offset revenue losses his hospital incurs for uncompensated care.
“We’re losing out on about 15% of the revenue we could collect every month,” Bulger said. “We’re constantly trying to find ways to make that work, but if you think about it, no business can operate long-term with that much loss. Expanding Medicaid would significantly help us cover that hole, and it could legitimately keep us alive.”
UMMC, the state’s only academic hospital, had a $7 million loss in its first fiscal quarter – a loss they predicted as they battled rising nursing costs. The hospital system spent $22 million on staffing temporary nurses to fill gaps. These nurses make about two-and-half times the salaries of those nurses actually employed by the hospital.
Singing River has about 200 positions open. That’s staffing they, too, have to fill with pricier contracted labor. Singing River CEO Tiffany Murdock said she supports Medicaid expansion – and that she agrees any revenue would help hospitals fill gaps.
“If they’re just coming into our hospital with those acute care problems, they are a high dollar,” said Murdock. “With (Medicaid expansion) we’d get reimbursement for that expense that right now…we’re not.”
Increased health care coverage would also likely lead to better patient outcomes. Typically patients without health care go without a primary care doctor, their health problems getting worse – and more expensive – than if they had access to intervening medical care.
Kilmichael Hospital in Kilmichael on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. The hospital closed in January 2015. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Wiltz, the Louisiana doctor and CEO of Teche Action Clinic, saw how health care in Louisiana transformed under Medicaid expansion: diabetes patients who risked limb loss with their disease now under control and people with cancerous polyps removed during colonoscopies they would have likely never had without coverage.
As of October of this year, 750,340 people in Louisiana have enrolled in Medicaid expansion. Since 2017, the state health department reported that 84,651 people received colonoscopies that likely wouldn’t have before expansion. Of that, close to 26,000 got polyps removed that could help prevent colon cancer. Another 131,680 got breast cancer screenings.
Wiltz has an easier time balancing his system’s books to secure their future serving rural residents because of the reliable reimbursements form his patients.
“Thank God Louisiana and our governor had enough integrity and compassion to expand Medicaid,” he said. “I really hope that other states – particularly Mississippi – that sees a similar population as we do would come to that same conclusion.”
But in Mississippi, as health care leaders continue to hope Medicaid expansion could soon get a fair debate at the Capitol, they’re having to live with the financial consequences of politics.
“I’ve been involved in health care in Mississippi since the early 1970s, and this is the worst, by far, of that span in my 50-year career in medicine in this state — both in terms of stability of hospitals, of having enough nurses and doctors and therapists and specialists to staff our hospitals, and in terms of patients having access to care because they’re uninsured,” said Dr. Dan Jones, former chief executive of the University of Mississippi Medical Center who has since become the American Heart Association’s national volunteer lead for healthcare expansion.
“People dying and hospitals closing are a real consequence of our failure to take advantage of expanding Medicaid.”
Mississippi Today’s Kate Royals, Geoff Pender and Adam Ganucheau contributed to this report.
Despite stacks of studies over years showing otherwise, most of Mississippi’s Republican leadership has been steadfast in its main argument that “the state can’t afford” Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor in the poorest, sickest state in the country.
In late 2018, struggling Mississippi hospitals hoping to cover hundreds of millions a year in uncompensated care for the indigent decided to call the bluff: They offered “Mississippi Cares,” a plan for hospitals and the working poor themselves to cover the state’s cost to pull down billions in federal dollars.
But legislative leaders, including then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, who remain opposed to Medicaid expansion, rejected the plan. It never even went to a vote.
Now, continually hammered by uncompensated care costs for the uninsured, the COVID-19 pandemic and other financial headwinds, Mississippi hospitals couldn’t afford to cover the state’s share on Medicaid expansion, said Mississippi Hospital Association President/CEO Tim Moore. Many are on the brink of financial ruin — something they had hoped Medicaid expansion could rectify.
“I don’t know how (hospitals) would fund the match now because of the condition they’ve gotten in with all these losses. It would be left up to the state now,” Moore said. “When you have major hospital systems in this state that have lost a quarter billion dollars last year, hospitals that have never had losses having them now and others budgeting for major losses for next year – the number of hospitals close to the brink is the most it’s ever been.”
State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney recently gave a similar warning to the state Board of Health. He said six hospitals in the Delta are “in significant, dire circumstances,” and at least four others across the state are struggling.
“There are 10 or 12 that in a year or two from now may not be here,” Edney said. “… To lose six hospitals in the Delta would be catastrophic … No one’s coming to the rescue.”
Among other problems, Moore said, hospitals are having to pay back federal loans they took during the pandemic as labor costs, pharmaceutical and other supply costs skyrocket and revenue remains flat.
“It’s a perfect storm for a financial disaster for hospitals,” Moore said, one that has been ameliorated by federal health dollars in states that have expanded Medicaid per the Affordable Care Act.
To try to overcome political opposition, MHA had proposed creating a public-private partnership, expanding Medicaid eligibility to adults earning up to 138% of the poverty level but imposing a $20 a month premium on enrollees and a $100 copay for non-emergency use of hospital emergency rooms. Hospitals would cover remaining state costs.
A study projected the plan would create an average additional 36,000 jobs a year in Mississippi for the first 11 years and provide an increase in state tax revenue, a decrease in private insurance premiums and a reduction in uncompensated care costs of $252 million a year. The plan also included a requirement that unemployed beneficiaries enroll in job training or education programs.
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