Cassidy urges locals to use infrastructure funds, tours Wellness Center

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy made a pass Thursday through St. Mary Parish, praising the Bayou Bend Wellness Center in Franklin for its contribution to promoting good health, and urging officials in Morgan City to use federal funding opportunities “to get what’s broken fixed.”
At Morgan City’s Emergency Operations Center, speaking to an audience that included Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna and Berwick Mayor Duval Arthur, Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has put nearly $20 million for construction and repairs in the Atchafalaya Basin and $10 million into an expansion of the Port of Morgan City dock.
According to a press release from his office, Cassidy has also advocated for the repeal of Risk Rating 2.0 to lower flood insurance rates, and voted last month to prevent a lapse in the National Flood Insurance Program while securing disaster relief money for those impacted by recent storms.
Risk Rating 2.0 converted the old system for determining risk and flood insurance premiums from the use of an average risk across a ZIP Code to one that evaluates risk on individual properties. While the new system reduces or maintains rates for many, Risk Rating 2.0 will drastically raise premiums for others.
Among the local projects being contemplated with federal funding is a $4 million upgrade in Berwick’s natural gas system. Arthur said the money will be used to replace leaky PVC pipes that deliver gas, losing 19% of the product in the process.
In Franklin, Cassidy toured the Wellness Center that former state Sen. Bret Allain supported as a way to direct Medicaid funding at preventing illness and injury.
Allain told Cassidy that the hospital district is supported by a 14 mill property tax, and that the $30 membership fee for the center is made possible because “we don’t have the burden of debt.”
Allain and Bayou Bend CEO Stephanie Guidry both spoke about the out-migration of local residents for health care.
“As a doctor, I know that good health care is important for the individual, the family, and the community,” said Cassidy, who is a physician. “Families will move to a community based upon the quality of their health care. Bayou Bend is meeting those needs and then some.”
Cassidy has introduced legislation to support rural health care and the communities they serve. That includes the Protecting Access to Ground Ambulance Medical Services Act to support rural ambulance services, the PEERS in Medicare Act to encourage peer counseling for senior citizens, and the CONNECT for Health Act to support telehealth through Medicare. The announcement by Cassidy and Gov. Jeff Landry in August of $1.35 billion from the infrastructure for rural broadband will help provide the foundation necessary to expand telehealth throughout Louisiana.
Cassidy said in an interview that federal authorities are committed to incentivizing wellness and preventive care — “how you make health care accessible and head off illness before it starts.”