The Jindal administration in Louisiana is
on the defensive over the
reporting of the Baton Rouge General Medical Center Mid City's decision to shut down its emergency room because it can't afford to keep it open. The state insists that it stepped up with $18 million in September to keep the doors of the ER open. The problem is, it's not enough to keep up with the uncompensated care the
hospital has to provide. What's not noted by the state or news articles is that the hospital wouldn't have to be spending so much on uncompensated care if Gov. Bobby Jindal and the states' Republican lawmakers had accepted Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.
"We've left no stone unturned as we've sought solutions that would allow us to keep the Mid City ER open," said hospital President and CEO Mark Slyter, in a statement issued after the news broke. "Though we are closing the Mid City ER doors, the care and commitment to our Mid City community remains strong."
The Mid City hospital, according to its website, has been struggling to handle the cost of uninsured patients that have been coming to the Mid City ER since Earl K. Long Medical Center closed in 2013. The hospital said it's losing money at a dramatically growing pace: from $12.5 million in 2013, to $23.8 million in 2014, to a projected $25 million to $30 million in 2015.
Medicaid expansion would solve that problem, in Louisiana and in all the states, like
Georgia and
North Carolina, that are seeing hospital doors shut.