Jindal's own Dept. of Health and Hospitals says that there is over $350 million in savings to be had.
The fact that Jindal decided not to accept the optional expansion has left about 242,000 low-income state residents in limbo. These are the people who fall into an insurance gap. They make too much money to qualify for traditional Medicaid and too little to qualify for insurance premium subsidies under the the health-care law. Yet we leave federal money to fix this on the table.
That leaves many of them using hospital emergency rooms for health care — the most expensive type of care by far. And the rest must use the state Charity Hospital system, Louisiana being the only state that maintains this socialized medicine system at great cost.
None of your studies count the money Louisiana stands to save if we no longer had to build, maintain, staff, and run these gulag charity hospitals. But if Louisianans are covered under ACA approved insurance or Medicaid, then we no longer need Charity Hospitals.
Worse, Jindal is trying to privatize the Charity Hospital System. That simply
maintains the socialized medicine system but adds
corporate profit to it at the expense of Louisiana taxpayers. If all Louisiana citizens were covered under ACA insurance or Medicaid, then $millions would flow to existing private doctors and hospitals through the free market. Market competition would keep rates reasonable. More expansion of Louisiana facilities and hiring of personnel through a free market economy instead of a state government subsidy "charity" program that nobody else in America uses.
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