INDReporter

Jindal won't seek to follow Arkansas on Medicaid

by Walter Pierce

Arkansas has asked federal officials to let it use the Medicaid money to buy private insurance policies, and the Obama administration is working with the state on that idea.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration isn't seeking to replicate a Medicaid expansion effort like what is under debate in Arkansas, despite requests from state lawmakers to consider it.

That was the word Tuesday from Jindal's interim health secretary, Kathy Kliebert, to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.

Arkansas has asked federal officials to let it use the Medicaid money to buy private insurance policies, and the Obama administration is working with the state on that idea.

Louisiana lawmakers have several times urged the Department of Health and Hospitals to consider something similar.

But Kliebert says the federal guidelines being outlined for the Arkansas proposal don't offer enough flexibility for the state to run its own health care programs and still leaves too much uncertainty about future federal financing and regulations.