Chaotic lake getting fence and securityWhat we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
FORT MYERS Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
FORT MYERS Could a Ferris wheel in downtown Fort Myers work? Right now, there are talks to bring a Ferris wheel to downtown Fort Myers, but several things are still up in the air.
LITTLE HICKORY BAY Improving ‘Hell’s Gate’ safety, a notoriously dangerous waterway for boaters A push to make an area known as “Hell’s Gate” safer since it’s a dangerous stretch of water with several blind corners within Little Hickory Bay.
Fixing failed back surgeries More than a million and a half people in the U.S. undergo back surgery each year. However, classic back surgery has one of the highest failure rates of any surgery.
WINK NEWS Getting an inside look at the FEMA discount controversy Picking up the pieces after Hurricane Ian has been difficult for many and moving on can impact our wallets.
FGCU FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff playing for hometown team after labrum injury FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff is living the dream playing for the hometown team after he overcame a labrum injury.
LEHIGH ACRES Frustrated Lehigh parents want action after violent school fights go viral online Violence at a Lehigh Acres Middle school was captured and posted online.
Turtle Club beachfront restaurant relaunches in Naples After a series of private friends and family events this week, The Turtle Club will reopen May 5 and begin taking reservations again May 6.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
FORT MYERS Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
FORT MYERS Could a Ferris wheel in downtown Fort Myers work? Right now, there are talks to bring a Ferris wheel to downtown Fort Myers, but several things are still up in the air.
LITTLE HICKORY BAY Improving ‘Hell’s Gate’ safety, a notoriously dangerous waterway for boaters A push to make an area known as “Hell’s Gate” safer since it’s a dangerous stretch of water with several blind corners within Little Hickory Bay.
Fixing failed back surgeries More than a million and a half people in the U.S. undergo back surgery each year. However, classic back surgery has one of the highest failure rates of any surgery.
WINK NEWS Getting an inside look at the FEMA discount controversy Picking up the pieces after Hurricane Ian has been difficult for many and moving on can impact our wallets.
FGCU FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff playing for hometown team after labrum injury FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff is living the dream playing for the hometown team after he overcame a labrum injury.
LEHIGH ACRES Frustrated Lehigh parents want action after violent school fights go viral online Violence at a Lehigh Acres Middle school was captured and posted online.
Turtle Club beachfront restaurant relaunches in Naples After a series of private friends and family events this week, The Turtle Club will reopen May 5 and begin taking reservations again May 6.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Medicaid, long the stepchild of government health care programs, is finally coming into its own. The federal-state program for low-income people has been scarcely debated in the turbulent presidential election, but it faces real consequences depending on who wins the White House in the Nov. 8 vote. Under President Barack Obama, Medicaid has expanded to cover more than 70 million people and shed much of the social stigma from its earlier years as a welfare program. Two big industries – insurers and hospitals – have a declared stake in the future of the program, which costs more than $530 billion a year. Insurers are leading a new “Modern Medicaid Alliance” to educate lawmakers about how the program has moved closer to private coverage. Medicaid has become “one of the primary mainstream health care programs,” says former Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who for decades worked to expand benefits and coverage. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton would keep that going, trying to persuade 19 holdout states to accept the Medicaid expansion in Obama’s health law. The expansion has added millions of low-income adults to the program, including many workers whose jobs don’t offer health insurance. Clinton would have to address concerns among state lawmakers about growing costs. Republican Donald Trump would repeal the overhaul and reverse its Medicaid expansion. Then Trump would go further, putting a brake on the program by replacing open-ended federal funding with a limited block grant. States would get much more leeway to run Medicaid, but it would no longer be a federal entitlement. Even if Trump loses, his party is committed to that general approach. That may not be good for people such as Nick Novak, a Chicago-area man who represents the changing face of Medicaid. Novak, in his late 30s, works a couple of part-time jobs, neither of which comes with health insurance. His main work is helping grocery stores remodel and reset shelves. Illinois is one of 31 states that expanded Medicaid, and Novak said he gained coverage as a result. To qualify, a single adult can make no more than 138 percent of the federal poverty line, about $16,400. Medicaid paid for Novak’s surgery to widen a constricted urinary pathway, an operation costing more than $40,000. That allowed him to avoid having to use a catheter for the rest of his life, a less costly fallback that would have left him prone to infections. “I’m aware of what people think about Medicaid,” Novak said. “Honestly, I don’t think there’s any shame in accepting help like that. It’s not like I sit there collecting from the government.” Novak said he had never given much thought to Medicaid before. “Things can change in the blink of an eye,” he said. “When you need to depend on it, it will definitely change your views.” The public’s views also have evolved. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll last year around Medicaid’s 50th anniversary found that more than 8 in 10 people not covered by the program would enroll themselves or a child rather than go uninsured. Sixty-two percent said the federal government should continue to guarantee coverage for low-income people, and only about one-third favored block grants, the Trump approach. Breaking the link between Medicaid and welfare has been a long process, which started in the 1980s with pregnant women and children and was completed under Obama’s health law. “It is no longer a program that is seen as exclusively for people who are not working,” said Robert Blendon, a public opinion expert at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Medicaid now covers so many people from different income backgrounds that it is seen as much broader program that provides health insurance to people of modest incomes.” Consider a few indicators of how Medicaid is changing: -Medicaid covers a significantly higher number of people than Medicare, more than 70 million compared with 57 million. It’s also the most diverse health care program, covering pregnant women and children, low-income adults with no children at home, severely disabled people, and many nursing home residents. A large majority of Medicaid recipients are in private managed-care plans, which are trying to reduce patients’ use of the emergency room for routine care. -There’s a perception that having Medicaid is worse than being uninsured because in most states the program pays doctors significantly less than Medicare or private insurance. But government statistics paint a more nuanced picture. Eighty-one percent of Medicaid beneficiaries ages 19-64 said they saw a doctor at least once in 2015, compared with under half of the uninsured. Still, nearly 10 percent said they had trouble finding a physician, compared with 5 percent of those with private insurance. Independent studies have shown improved financial well-being with Medicaid coverage. Virtually all hospitals accept Medicaid. -Republican-led states that expanded Medicaid have gotten concessions from the Obama administration on issues such as charging modest premiums to beneficiaries and using copays to discourage emergency room visits for routine care. If Clinton is elected, expect more of those sorts of changes as she tries to convince remaining states to expand. Some conservatives would like to see work requirements. “Republican governors and legislatures unwilling to do the expansion under strict terms would be willing to do it under more favorable conditions,” said Jim Capretta, a health care policy expert at the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute. He said if Clinton “is more of a dealmaker than the Obama administration, I think she’d get some takers.”