Promoting it as a health care and economic issue, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu pushed Tuesday for Louisiana voters to decide the fate of Medicaid expansion.Bobby Jindal won't allow Medicaid expansion in the State of Louisiana, despite gaping holes in the state budget for health care, so will the Louisiana Legislature have the courage to let the people decide? The lawmakers who worry about any association with Obamacare can then wash their hands of responsibility and blame the expansion on the people of the state.
“The governor has clearly put his political future ahead of the future of the state of Louisiana,” said Landrieu, D-La. “Let the people decide what is fair, whether they want to expand and use over $16 billion” in federal funds.
“It’s kind of our last hope to let the people make the decision. It’s not too much to ask,” Landrieu said.
Governor Jindal chooses to put his personal ambitions for national office ahead of the nearly 250,000 citizens of Louisiana who need health insurance, so it's way past time for the legislators to do the job the people of the state elected them to do, for which they're paid salaries with our tax money, and let the people decide.Landrieu said the proposition makes good economic sense. “In order to have a strong workforce, you need a healthy workforce,” she said. She said the state is rejecting $16 billion available “to strengthen the workforce.”The Medicaid expansion also would bring 15,600 new health care-related jobs in 2016 and help sustain financially struggling rural hospitals, Landrieu said.
Louisiana has far too many laws embedded in the state constitution, but, in this instance, there is no way around Bobby Jindal's refusal to help the citizens of the state other than one more constitutional amendment.
UPDATE: The Louisiana Legislature will not let the people decide.
An attempt to go around Gov. Bobby Jindal and put the issue of Medicaid expansion to Louisiana voters failed to clear its first legislative hurdle Wednesday.
After more than four hours of testimony, most of it from supporters, including leading Democratic Party elected officials, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted 6-2 to defer action on the proposed constitutional amendment, effectively killing it.
Sad that it has to come to that [JCF, now on Medicaid (aka Medi-Cal, here in the Golden State]
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you have health insurance, JCF. Jindal's decision to refuse the money makes no sense in a state with budget deficits year after year. Also, he seems totally lacking in compassion.
DeleteGod help Louisiana. For that matter, God help Texas, where the same kind of hateful politics are losing us $100 billion in federal medical cost coverage over the next ten years.
ReplyDeleteBut people in your state and mine keep right on voting the Pharisees into office, time after time - hardly a recommendation for democracy, is it?
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Both Jindal and Perry say they're all about jobs and putting people to work, but they ignore the creation of jobs and the boost to the economies of their states that would come with the Medicaid expansion.
DeleteAmen to that. As far as I'm concerned, lower-income residents in Texas got thrown under the bus. Medicaid expansion would have helped those who don't find high-deductible plans practical or helpful.
DeleteIt's shameful of the governors to withhold the opportunity to obtain health insurance from low income people in their states. I rather doubt the legislators in Louisiana will have the courage to allow the people to choose.
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