Louisiana senators to Gov. Bobby Jindal: Let's speed up Medicaid expansion process
A state Senate committee Monday asked Gov. Bobby Jindal’s health department to stop wasting time and come up with a proposal to expand Medicaid by the end of the year.
Jindal and Republican legislators repeatedly have rejected efforts to increase the Medicaid rolls, the government program paying for health care coverage for the poor, to include people who make too much money to qualify for the program but not enough to buy adequate coverage on the private market. They have argued adding 307,000 to 531,000 new people to the million or so poor people already enrolled would eventually become too expensive for Louisiana taxpayers.
Medicaid spending accounts for about $8 billion in annual state and federal dollars, roughly a third of Louisiana’s operating budget.
GOP lawmakers are now showing more willingness to expand Medicaid as Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards prepares for his Jan. 11 inauguration. As a Democratic state representative, Edwards tried several times to adopt expansion, and he has made it a priority of his new administration.
Read more: http://theadvocate.com/news/14219214-55/senators-seek-plan-to-expand-louisianas-medicaid-program