Access to healthcare could be just around the corner for as many as 300,000 Louisianans. Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards (D), who promised Medicaid expansion by executive order during his campaign says he'll make good on that promise in the first 24 hours of his administration and that people will have Medicaid cards in hand by July 1.
“There is not a challenge there that we won’t meet and overcome,” Edwards said in his first detailed comments about rolling out the program.
“We will set in motion the Medicaid expansion very early on. It may actually be the second day, but within 24 hours of being sworn in, we will issue the executive order,” he said. “That will start the process of expansion, which we believe we will do on July 1, 2016.”
Edwards made his comments as he announced a new health department chief who will spearhead those details after he takes the oath of office Monday.
One of the first comments made by Dr. Rebekah Gee, who was named secretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals, was that the new administration would have to hire 248 employees to handle the surge, which is expected to add about 300,000 new enrollees to the government program that already provides health insurance for about 1.4 million Louisiana residents.
Those new employees are necessary after current Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R) extreme downsizing of the agency, the public health of his state not being his highest priority. The feds will pay 75 percent of the state's costs for those new hires. Edwards is going to face some challenges, both legal and administrative, in meeting his goal but his promise to begin the process immediately is a sign of how committed he will be in making it happen.