State senators asked Louisiana’s health department today to draw up a Medicaid expansion proposal within weeks, as they ready for a new governor who wants to tap into that provision of the federal health care law.
As The Associated Press reports, lawmakers have repeatedly rejected Medicaid expansion plans, siding with Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, an expansion opponent. But Jindal is term-limited, and legislators are showing more openness to the idea as John Bel Edwards, a Democratic state representative and ardent expansion supporter, readies to take over as governor on Jan. 11.
The Senate Finance Committee asked the Department of Health and Hospitals to devise an expansion plan before Jan. 1. Members also asked the Legislature’s financial analysts to study the different models used by other states to determine how they could apply to Louisiana.
“I’d like to see how much it costs. I don’t think we’ve ever had a really good estimate of what it costs,” says Finance Committee Chairman Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville. “It could be a benefit to Louisiana.”
Expanding the Medicaid program to cover the working poor would bring billions of new federal dollars into the state and is estimated to have some possible savings for Louisiana.
Any expansion, however, won’t help cover a $530 million Medicaid deficit that is looming in the current fiscal year. Without a fix, the health department estimates it would run out of money to pay doctors, hospitals and other Medicaid providers in May.
“Once the money runs out, the payments to the providers stop. That’s just the stark reality,” says DHH Undersecretary Jeff Reynolds.
Closing the immediate Medicaid gap before the fiscal year ends June 30 would cost an estimated $191 million in state financing to draw down the remaining portion in federal matching dollars.
Jindal and lawmakers didn’t put enough money into this year’s Medicaid budget to cover increases in enrollment and in costs of items, like prescription drugs. An internal source of financing planned to fill the Medicaid gap was instead used by Jindal to cover another state budget deficit.
Reynolds says the health department estimates Medicaid is enrolling about 2,000 new recipients a month. He says the boost is driven by private operators of the LSU hospital system working to put Medicaid-eligible patients on the program’s rolls and by federal law requiring people to get health insurance making more people aware of their Medicaid eligibility.
