Gov. John Bel Edwards’ plan to expand Louisiana’s Medicaid program faces its first legislative test today as the Democratic governor’s administration seeks support to hire new health department workers to sign people up for the expanded coverage.
As The Associated Press reports, the Department of Health and Hospitals wants to add 248 new employees to handle enrollment of the thousands of people expected to qualify for Medicaid under an eligibility expansion.
The joint House and Senate budget committee, whose members are majority Republican, was scheduled to consider the hiring plan at its first meeting since Edwards took office earlier this month.
The new workers would cost $10.3 million this budget year for salaries, benefits, training and equipment, according to information provided to the committee, with $7.3 million paid by the federal government.
The remaining $3 million price tag, under the Edwards administration proposal, would be paid by health care providers, like hospitals and clinics, who would have the health department employees working on site at their facilities to enroll patients at the places they seek care.
Federal officials still must sign off on the staffing proposal. The federal Medicaid agency has approved it in other places like South Carolina, though Louisiana hasn’t previously used the method.
Quick approval—and hiring of the enrollment workers—will help determine whether Edwards can achieve what he admits is an aggressive timeline, of having government-funded health insurance cards in more people’s hands by July 1.
The Edwards administration estimates that more than 300,000 additional people, mainly the working poor, will be added to Louisiana’s Medicaid program under the expansion, which covers adults making up to 138% of the federal poverty level—about $33,400 for a family of four.
Under the governor’s plan, Louisiana will join 30 other states that have undertaken Medicaid expansions, including several overseen by Republicans. Read the full story.
