Jindal, considered a possible 2016 presidential candidate for the GOP, has made rejection of the Medicaid expansion a central plank of his political philosophy. Democrats accuse the governor of putting his political ambitions ahead of citizens' healthcare.
But the issue has grown murkier than partisan politics. Several Republican lawmakers—particularly in the Senate—have suggested the state should at least consider different expansion models to offer coverage to hundreds of thousands of uninsured.
Jindal said the expansion would eat into state dollars that would otherwise pay for education and infrastructure, expand an inefficient healthcare program and shift people from private insurance to taxpayer-funded Medicaid. He said the expansion would mean 41% of Louisiana's residents would be on Medicaid.
"We can't continue to grow this program. It would be unsustainable. We cannot continue to put more and more people into these expensive entitlements, into these expensive government-run programs," the governor said Thursday.
Estimates are that anywhere from 675,000 to more than 800,000 people are uninsured in Louisiana.
The Louisiana Hospital Association, which represents private and community hospitals, has announced its support of the Medicaid expansion. It also has been championed by Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, and healthcare advocacy groups are pushing it as a moral imperative for a poor and unhealthy state.
"Medicaid expansion offers a path to regular access to healthcare for working adults," former Louisiana health secretaries David Hood and Fred Cerise said in a newspaper ad promoting the expansion.
Rep. Walt Leger (D-New Orleans), the No. 2 ranking member of the Louisiana House, said the expansion would provide healthcare coverage to 400,000 uninsured people, save the state money, improve the financial stability of Louisiana's hospitals and pump new money into the economy to create new jobs.
Louisiana would get an estimated $15 billion to $16 billion in federal Medicaid funding over a decade to cover the additional low-income residents.
Both opponents and critics cite financial estimates from a recent report by the state Department of Health and Hospitals to bolster their positions on the state's costs.
The report says Louisiana could save up to $368 million over 10 years while covering more than 577,000 additional people through Medicaid, figures referenced by supporters of expansion. The savings can be attributed to lessening existing state costs for providing healthcare to the uninsured.
