LSU medicine professor slams Jindal in ‘Atlantic’ column

In a guest column featured in The Atlantic magazine Tuesday, LSU associate clinical professor of medicine Dr. Frederick Cerise says Gov. Bobby Jindal has created a baffling stance on health care. “Instead of providing desperately needed leadership and clarity for his constituents, Bobby Jindal continues to confuse us,” Cerise writes in the column, which primarily criticizes Jindal’s decision to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and to cut health care services in the state—which he says amounts to the “dismantling the state’s public safety net.” Cerise says the decisions will leave some of the state’s poorest and most vulnerable residents uninsured. “After two years as Louisiana’s Health Secretary and five years as governor, Jindal presides over a Louisiana that has one of the country’s largest uninsured populations with worsening access to care. He is now chair of the Republican Governor’s Association, with a message for the country. Those outside of Louisiana can start to get to know him better by examining his health care record back home,” Cerise concludes. Read the full column here.