Jindal: Let’s meet on Medicaid, Mr. President

In a guest column featured in The Washington Post, Gov. Bobby Jindal says expanding Medicaid “will significantly burden state budgets across the country.” Jindal notes that analyses conducted by his office show the expansion would cost Louisiana more than $1 billion over the first 10 years. This figure has been disputed by some of the governor’s critics in the state, who say the expansion could save money over time. Jindal isn’t buying it. “The Obama administration heralds this as a tremendous bargain for states. That’s simply not the case,” he writes in today’s column. “The administration overlooks that Medicaid is largely failing current enrollees with its outdated model that costs billions of taxpayer dollars and produces poor outcomes.” He says that “a number of Republican governors” have asked to meet with President Barack Obama to discuss the expansion and their counterproposals and that “The White House has ignored these requests.” Jindal says the governors’ ideas for fixing Medicaid target several areas of reform, including eligibility, benefit design, cost sharing, use of the private insurance market, financing and accountability. Read the full column here for more details.