1 year in, Louisiana Medicaid expansion by the numbers
Louisiana expanded Medicaid coverage a year ago this month. To mark the anniversary, Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday (July 6) released a report touting the benefits of extending the government-funded health care program to more people, an issue on which he campaigned in 2015 and that he made a top priority upon taking office in January 2016.
The governor's rosy report comes at a time when the federal program is threatened. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a plan to curb federal spending on Medicaid, and the Senate Republican leadership is pushing a similar proposal. Edwards, a Democrat, says the rollback would result in people getting worse health care coverage and dying.
He says Medicaid expansion has given better, more affordable health care coverage to many Louisiana residents and brought the state billions of federal dollars that would otherwise be spent somewhere else. Most of the cost of running Medicaid expansion is covered by the federal government, not the state.
Here are some of the numbers that Edwards is highlighting:
21.7 percent -- The portion of Louisiana residents without health insurance in 2013.
12.7 percent -- The portion of Louisiana residents without health insurance now. The drop is credited to Medicaid expansion and is one of the largest of any state, Edwards says.
Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/07/louisiana_medicaid_expansion_n.html