In Louisiana, What a difference a Democrat makes..Boston Globe [View all]

[Stuart G]

Last edited Tue Aug 9, 2016, 10:18 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/08/08/louisiana-what-difference-democrat-makes/SsWMOft2LgMDOdpIMa8J3M/story.html

By Michael A. Cohen August 08, 2016

Last January, Louisiana voters elected John Bel Edwards governor (the only Democrat governor in the Deep South). On just his second day in office he signed an executive order that made Louisiana the 31st state to expand Medicaid, which is a crucial part of Obamacare. Edwards’s predecessor, Bobby Jindal, rejected the measure on the grounds – and I’m not making this up – that expanding access would “jeopardize the care of the most vulnerable in our society.”

At the time, Edwards noted that Louisiana “consistently ranked one of the poorest and unhealthiest states” and that improving Medicaid access would break the cycle of the state’s residents having to choose “between their health and their financial security.” Indeed, Louisiana is fourth from the bottom, among states, in life expectancy.

Seven months later, the impact of Edwards’s executive order is being felt across the state. Though applications for the new Medicaid benefit did not begin until June, already 265,723 Louisianians have signed up. The law is having a transformative effect, according to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times. “Patients burst into tears at this city’s glistening new charity hospital when they learned they could get Medicaid health insurance,” Noam Levey reported. One doctor said telling patients that they were eligible for health care coverage – something most of us take for granted — was like telling them, “I cured cancer.”

(farther down in article)..

This is a great public policy story — one that shows how a targeted effort using government resources for the most vulnerable can produce positive, even life-changing results. But the political part of the story is less great in the 19 states that have continued to reject calls for expansion. Not coincidentally, all 19 have either a Republican governor or a Republican state legislature. While many of these states have argued that the costs will be prohibitive, it’s long past time to discard this dishonest talking point

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This one article in my opinion is one of the most important ever written about the differences between the two parties and how they approach problems...And..guess which one helps people the most?