While Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration is opting out of the Medicaid expansion offered in the federal Affordable Care Act, The Times-Picayune reports New Orleans officials are looking for ways to go it alone. Jindal announced his decision after the Supreme Court in June upheld the constitutionality of the health care overhaul legislation but ruled that states can’t be compelled to expand Medicaid, a key component of President Barack Obama’s goal of providing near universal health coverage by 2014. Jindal says the Affordable Care Act, including the Medicaid expansion, is too costly. He’s one of nine GOP governors who are declining the Medicaid expansion. Jointly funded by federal and state governments, Medicaid provides health coverage for low-income citizens. But New Orleans officials say they are encouraged by a Medicaid waiver that has allowed the city to provide preventative care at no charge to uninsured, low-income residents, and on an income-based sliding scale for others. That waiver expires in 2014, but the city hopes it will be able to continue to provide universal coverage through expansion of Medicaid envisioned by the health care reform law, Health Commissioner Karen DeSalvo says. In a statement, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospital Secretary Bruce Greenstein doesn’t say whether his agency would reject a proposed New Orleans Medicaid expansion, but does call adding eligibility a “bad idea and expensive for taxpayers.” Read the full story here.
Today’s poll question: Should New Orleans be allowed to participate in the federal Medicaid expansion if the state does not?
