Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
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Question: Coaches around the league are taking preventive measures to help deal with the grind and stresses of a long NBA season. That hasn’t always been the case. Now, the NBA Coaches Association provides guidance to its members on everything from diet and exercise to sleep and mental health. “Well, we’re trying. We all are trying, we all are conscious of it,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “I don’t think we’re very good at it, honestly. I know I’ve tried. It’s still very hard to accomplish. The game consumes us. It consumes me at least, and it should, if you love it. And it’s just hard to turn off. It’s important. We have to do it. We should have been doing it.” After a late arrival in Bay Area last month, it was after 10 p.m. when Rivers had the team tissue therapist work on his body, including knees and ankle — “and my brain.” He has consulted a sleep doctor, too. In Los Angeles, Walton is being proactive by encouraging every staff member to stay physically, mentally and emotionally healthy. The advice is to recharge when necessary, in whatever way is best. “It’s a priority,” Lakers assistant Mark Madsen said. “It’s important because think about all the late nights. We’ll get into cities at 4 in the morning sometimes. You have to stay on top of it.” As a youngster, J.B. Bickerstaff knew there were a couple of hours in the afternoon on game days his father needed for himself. Bernie Bickerstaff took a power nap that allowed him to be fresh for a long night on the NBA bench. J.B. Bickerstaff now does it the same exact way as coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. The coaches’ association is providing support and guidance like never before, and many coaches are making a point to openly discuss wellness strategies and share ideas. There’s also a close-knit support system within this crop of NBA coaches that Dallas’ Rick Carlisle, the coaches’ association president, considers special. “We also have a unique group of head coaches right now, guys that are extremely competitive but have great respect for one another and provide a high level of support for each other,” Carlisle said. “Guys who are going through tough times with health and even things like losing streaks. We’ve got a very high character group.” For example, Clifford so appreciated a call he got last season from Kerr, each having gone through his own challenging health ordeal that kept him from the bench for an extensive stretch. Clifford, then coaching the Charlotte Hornets, missed more than five weeks dealing with agonizing headaches that after a battery of tests were deemed to be caused by sleep deprivation. Kerr has endured some of the most high-profile absences. He missed the initial 43 games of the 2015-16 season — including a record 24-0 start — dealing with painful and confounding symptoms following a pair of back surgeries. Kerr was sidelined again for 11 games during the Warriors’ 16-1 postseason in 2017 before returning to the bench for Game 2 of the NBA Finals the Warriors wound up winning in five games against LeBron James and Cleveland. Kerr had undergone a procedure to repair a spinal fluid leak on May 5, 2017, at Duke University but was not well enough to return until June 4. He made it through last year’s repeat run to a title. “My advice to coaches who are coming into the league: Don’t get back surgery,” Kerr quipped. “That’s my main advice. Sorry, bad joke. Luke Walton, when he took the Laker job, we talked a lot about that. He told me his whole staff is really on a conditioning program and a health-wellness program. I think it’s really smart, something that every staff should try to do is just make sure you’ve got people looking after you and looking after each other.” Kerr practices regular yoga and can often be seen on the elliptical machine after practice in a corner of the gym, getting loose on a foam roller or stretching with the assistance of an athletic trainer. Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts appreciates the points of emphasis and information provided by the coaches’ association “whether it’s diet or things to alleviate stress.” He watches what he eats and works in exercise whenever he can, saying those two things are “the remedy for everybody.” “A lot of it is just common sense that everybody has to deal with to take care of yourself,” Stotts said. “It’s not just coaches, obviously, it’s everybody, a lot of middle-aged men need to be doing the same, and some like me, beyond-middle-aged men. The fact that our lifestyle, if you give in to it, it can be a detriment, and everybody needs to be aware of it.” Clifford is in Orlando now, and he understands better than ever the importance of taking care of himself and monitoring his own health in a business where keeping your job depends largely on winning. He took significant steps to improve his sleep patterns and overall health, this after a previous heart scare as well. The 57-year-old Clifford deeply appreciated Kerr’s call. “It was great,” Clifford said. “He was one of the guys who reached out and obviously we had the health issue in common. It was a terrific gesture.” Last season, former Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue dealt with anxiety and needed a mental and physical break. “Wellness isn’t just physical. It’s mental as well,” Portland guard Damian Lillard said. “I think the position we’re in as professional athletes and with coaches in the social media age, it’s a little more difficult. That takes it to a much higher level from physical and mental ... when you’ve got people talking about you all the time, on Twitter bashing you. People just have so much more access to you. It becomes a more stressful job, much more pressure on your job and so many more eyes.” Coaches are also realizing they can’t always do it alone, relying on experts to stay healthy. Golden State hired Rick Celebrini this past offseason as director of sports medicine and performance. “If you can find some help, somebody to give you a little guidance,” Kerr said, “like we have here with Rick and Drew Yoder, I think it’s a big help.” The coaches’ association sends a regular newsletter with guidance from nutrition consultant Stacy Goldberg, who also is always available for 1-on-1 conversations. She attends coach association meetings, too, offering healthy food and snack choices. “Often, coaches are so focused on taking care of the players that they are not always focused on taking care of themselves,” said Goldberg, founder and CEO of Savorfull. “This is especially true when it comes to their nutrition.” Added Carlisle: “We view this as important as anything else we do with the NBA coaches association.” ___ More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Answer: NBA coaches’ new play: tending to health to cope with grind.


Question: The third-term Democrat touted past achievements and trumpeted a long list of policy initiatives, many of which he previewed in a series of announcements over the past month. Cuomo also stressed the need for fiscal restraint, with the state staring at a $6 billion budget gap, caused largely by soaring Medicaid spending. The agenda Cuomo outlined in the speech includes plans for expanding anti-discrimination protections in the state constitution, an overhaul for New York City’s Penn Station and a proposed ban on foam food containers. Cuomo also outlined another ban that would cover marketing flavored e-cigarettes to children, initiatives intended to lower the cost of prescription drugs, guaranteed paid sick leave time for more New York workers and expanded universal pre-kindergarten. “New York at her best is the progressive capitol of the nation, and we must fulfill that destiny again this year,” Cuomo said. Cuomo delivered his address at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in downtown Albany to an audience of members of the Legislature and top politicians from around the state. The speech kicked off a legislative session running through June 2. The governor’s address comes after several episodes of violence targeting Jewish people, including an attack by a man who stormed inside the home of a Monsey rabbi, Chaim Rottenberg, and stabbed five people at a Hanukkah celebration. Rottenberg delivered a blessing before Cuomo’s address and called for tolerance. “I will never forget the horror of that night,” Rottenberg said. “But I will also never forget how we continue to celebrate after that day, how we continue to rejoice in the miracle of Hanukkah. I will never forget the resilience on display that night and in the following days, the resilience of Jewish people and the resilience of New York.” Cuomo is proposing a new law targeted at domestic terrorism and said New York would be the first state in the U.S. to enact such legislation. The new law would apply to crimes in which at least one person died and victims were targeted by their race, religion and gender, among other topics. Cuomo called the attack “intolerable” and pledged the state won’t stand for it. “They attacked me, and they attacked you,” Cuomo said. “These are the times, my friends, when New York state is called upon to lead to set a course for a troubled nation searching its way through the fog of confusion,” he said. In a policy briefing book that accompanied his speech, Cuomo said his proposal to legalize marijuana would limit the sale of cannabis products to adults over age 21. But he only briefly mentioned his legalization proposal in his address Wednesday, to tepid applause. A similar proposal to legalize recreational marijuana failed last year among disagreements over funding and hesitation from suburban Democrats. Lawmakers instead scaled back penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana and created a process for expungement. Cuomo has declared “Making Progress Happen” as his slogan for 2020. But any progress will have to come while the state is grappling with a budget gap fueled by soaring Medicaid costs. Debate over how to handle the shortfall is expected to color virtually every policy debate this year. Hundreds of activists rallied in Albany demanding action on issues including the state’s ambitious climate change goals. Cuomo called climate change the “transcendent threat of our times” and proposed sending voters a $3 billion bond in November to fund a flood reduction and habitat restoration program he is calling Restore Mother Nature. “Because no economic strategy, no social justice reform, no education policy will be worth a damn if we don’t have a planet to live on,” he said. Cuomo has yet to share many details about his plans to address soaring costs of the Medicaid program, which serves over 6 million people. The governor called Wednesday for improved accountability in the Medicaid system, saying safeguards were needed to limit potential overspending on the program by municipalities. More details of how the administration plans to address the funding gap may have to wait for his budget proposal, expected in mid-January. Cuomo has cautioned against overspending while pledging not to raise taxes. That budget-conscious message could clash with more left-leaning lawmakers and advocates who want to balance the budget with new taxes on the wealthy. The governor’s party has seen big political wins in recent years, even as some long-time Democratic incumbents have lost to more left-wing challengers. But Cuomo argued Wednesday true progressive politics must be grounded in “reality” and champion results over rhetoric. Republicans, who have seen their clout diminish in Albany, say they will hold down spending and resist new taxes. Republican leaders including state GOP chairman Nick Langworthy criticized the governor for failing to address the budget deficit as well as a mounting debate over bail reforms enacted last year. Cuomo and other Democrats have signaled they are open to making changes to the statute. In his preview announcements over the past month, Cuomo has released proposals to ban untraceable guns, study high speed rail, allow liquor sales in movie theaters, require the use of American-made steel and iron on infrastructure projects and ease rules for prosecuting sexual assault involving intoxicated victims, among other initiatives. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat, said lawmakers have their own priorities this year, including working to increase school aid, affordable housing, infrastructure, local businesses, rural hospitals and mental healthcare.

Answer: Cuomo’s 2020 agenda: Fight hate, help planet, legalize pot.


Question: That is likely the case for William and Leslie Johnson of Jackson County, since the state decided not to expand the Medicaid program for the poor under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. As a result, nearly 300,000 adults there will fall through the cracks of healthcare reform. Many are the working poor - truckers, childcare workers, mechanics - who make too much money each month to qualify for Medicaid under Mississippi’s existing criteria but not quite enough to get government help buying private health insurance on an Obamacare exchange. Nationwide, 25 states have rejected the Medicaid expansion, leaving nearly 7 million adults who would otherwise have qualified for coverage without benefits. These states, many of them Republican-led, have declined government funding for an expansion largely because they say initially generous subsidies would eventually be reduced, leaving them with an unacceptably large burden in a few years’ time. Among those states, Mississippi faces one of the most dire situations. It tops the charts for poor-health indicators: highest in poverty, second-highest in obesity, highest in diabetes and highest in pre-term births. For the Johnsons, the struggle for health coverage has been a years-long battle. In the 16 years since her birth, their daughter, Mackenzie, has already had 10 major surgeries to treat her club foot, dislocated hips and malformed spine, all due to a rare form of spina bifida that causes the spinal cord to split. (The Johnsons also have an 11-year-old son, Tyler.) A major operation to insert two metal rods helped to straighten a 70-degree curve in Mackenzie’s spine that was collapsing her lungs and making it difficult for her to breathe. It improved her condition to the point where she no longer qualified for a special Medicaid program for disabled children living at home. She hasn’t had health insurance since last June. “At this point, we’re still fighting to get her on Medicaid, but being self-employed, if I gross a certain amount of money per month, they kick her off the program,” said William. In Mississippi, a two-parent working family of four earning $10,000 to $23,500 would not be eligible for assistance either through Medicaid or the exchange because the state did not expand Medicaid, said Ed Sivak, director of the nonpartisan Mississippi Economic Policy Center. Twenty percent of Mississippi’s nearly 3 million residents are on the Medicaid rolls. Twelve percent are on Medicare, and 20 percent are uninsured, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In rejecting the Medicaid expansion, Republican Governor Phil Bryant is turning down an estimated $426 million in federal funds for next year. He has argued that the administrative costs borne by the state would be too high. A report by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning estimated the cost of Medicaid expansion for the state at $8.5 million in 2014, rising to $159 million in 2025 as more people enroll in the program and federal subsidies step down from 100 percent initially to 90 percent. Mississippi is also among the states that may get the least benefit from healthcare reform in other ways. Only two health insurers are offering coverage in the state on the federally run subsidized exchange for private insurance, with premiums for a benchmark plan costing more than the national average. It was the sole state to apply to run its own exchanges and be turned down by the federal government because of concerns Bryant would not provide enough support to launch it. Instead, the federal government is running Mississippi’s exchange. State House Minority Leader Bobby Moak, a Democrat whose coalition has fought hard for health reform in Mississippi, says Bryant’s arguments are a cover for rejecting anything President Obama supports. “We like to say that the healthcare act was written for Mississippi, but our folks had the ‘good sense’ to turn it down,” he said. In late June, state House Democrats staged a showdown to force a vote on Medicaid expansion, holding up reauthorization of the state’s current Medicaid program, which serves one in five Mississippi residents. A last-minute legislative deal reached on June 28 saved the program but failed to expand it. Bryant declined requests to speak to Reuters, but spokesman Mick Bullock said in an email the governor will not reconsider his position on Medicaid expansion, which he said was “bad policy” and “fiscally unsustainable.”  “Governor Bryant will not put Mississippi taxpayers on the hook for something the state simply cannot afford,” Bullock said. Without coverage, Mackenzie’s family cannot afford to replace the wheelchair she has been using for the past six years. Nor can they afford $850 a month for physical therapy or the cost of replacing the brace she just got for her club foot. It doesn’t fit properly, but “my ankle collapses when I walk without it,” Mackenzie offers politely in an interview at the public library in the Gulf town of Pascagoula, a leading producer of ships for the U.S. Navy. The town is the seat of Jackson County, where nearly 10,000 adults aged 18 to 64 will lose out on Medicaid. Dr. Pamela Banister practices family medicine at Singing River Health System’s clinic in Pascagoula. The not-for-profit hospital system offers a menu of services that all cost $49, from school physicals to treatments for sinus infections and rashes. On bigger-ticket items, the hospital offers a 40 percent discount to patients who can pay cash at the time of service. That allows many patients to have their blood pressure checked or keep track of their diabetes, but often it’s not enough to tackle bigger issues. “I’ve got a man who’s 62. I just know he’s got to have Parkinson’s. I made a stab at throwing a fairly affordable medicine at him, but it’s not doing what he needs,” Banister says. “I say, ‘You need a specialist,’ and he says, ‘I can’t afford it.’”  Mackenzie’s father has had a nerve tumor on his foot since 2006, and he can’t afford the surgery he needs. “It’s extremely painful, but the doctors want $5,000 down. The operating room at the hospital wants another $1,800 down,” he said. “You live with the pain.”  The Johnsons have been working with a program funded through the Affordable Care Act called Health Help Mississippi that helps families negotiate the red tape of applying for Medicaid in Mississippi, a process intentionally made more daunting by former Governor Haley Barbour, who famously charged that some individuals on the state’s Medicaid rolls were driving BMWs. Last year, William’s trucking business made between $23,000 and $24,000, which should qualify Mackenzie for coverage under a Medicaid program that covers children in families who make up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $47,100 for a family of four. But they are just on the edge of qualifying for federal tax credits to help them buy insurance on the federal insurance marketplace, which would cover the whole family. Mackenzie’s mother, Leslie, a Republican, is no fan of health reform and believes people should pay their own way. But her daughter needs treatment. “It’s very hard. I need it and I don’t want it,” she said. Mississippi’s hospitals are also in a precarious position. The 2010 health reform law was designed to reduce payments to safety-net hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of poor patients. It was based on the premise that more people would soon gain coverage through Medicaid expansion. Without Medicaid expansion, hospitals face cuts in these so-called disproportionate share payments. Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg projects a $2.5 million loss for the federal government’s fiscal 2014, which started October 1, due to these reimbursement cuts as well as to across-the-board federal government spending cuts. In a July letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Mississippi’s Bryant asked HHS to delay disproportionate share cuts to hospitals, as it had done in delaying other portions of the law. A month later, Sebelius replied, urging Bryant to expand Medicaid in the state and “take advantage of the generous federal matching funds.”  It costs the state $1.4 billion annually to run Medicaid, its second-highest expense after education. An additional $3.5 billion comes from the federal government in a 4-1 match that substantially props up Mississippi’s entire healthcare system, from hospitals to nursing homes. Roy Mitchell, executive director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, says ultimately the hospital payments issue may force the governor’s hand. “The governor is standing in the tracks in front of a billion-dollar train. He’s going to get run over at some point.”  Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, a Republican who has been friends with Bryant for decades, doubts Bryant will change his mind. “The governor has his reasons. I do not know what they are. He has told me repeatedly he just does not trust the Affordable Care Act to do what it said it would do, and he did not trust the federal government at all to do what they said they would do,” Chaney said. “He’s pretty well set in stone.”  Chaney, who dislikes a law he calls “poorly written” and “ill conceived,” nevertheless says it is “the law of the land.” He worked hard to develop a state-based healthcare exchange that would have given Mississippi more control over the insurance marketplace. But, citing the governor’s fierce opposition to Obamacare, HHS denied Mississippi’s petition - the only state HHS turned down. Moak says he and fellow Democrats will bring up the Medicaid issue again in the next legislative session. “We’re not going to stop talking about it,” he said.

Answer:
Mississippi blues: The cost of rejecting Medicaid expansion.