More than 242,000 poor, uninsured Louisiana residents fall into a health care coverage gap because the state isn't expanding its Medicaid program.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - More than 242,000 poor, uninsured Louisiana residents fall into a health care coverage gap because the state isn't expanding its Medicaid program.
That's according to a report released Wednesday by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.
The federal health overhaul created an insurance marketplace for the uninsured to shop for coverage - and provided subsidies to help low- and moderate-income families pay for it.
But part of the planned fix envisioned under the law included states expanding their Medicaid eligibility to allow more working poor to qualify for free coverage.
Gov. Bobby Jindal, like many Republican governors, refused to expand Louisiana's Medicaid program.
Kaiser says 34 percent of Louisiana's uninsured adults aren't eligible for federal subsidies to buy insurance but would have been eligible for free Medicaid coverage under an expansion.