Louisiana: 100,000 Residents Will Gain Access To Medicaid As New Governor Takes Office

Two bits of good news in Louisiana - Gov. Bobby Jindal is out and newly elected Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards is in.

Plus, 100,000 residents will get healthcare immediately.

Edwards says that he’s signing off on Medicaid expansion this Tuesday. That means at least one hundred thousand low-income residents of Louisiana will gain access to health care immediately.

The Affordable Care Act of 2009 provided federal funding for expanding Medicaid to those who are as much as thirty-eight percent over the poverty line, but the Supreme Court subsequently ruled that individual states could decline the funds.

Jindal was among the republican governors who chose politics over the health of their own residents. But that now ends immediately. And the people of Louisiana are about to get even more good news.

In related news, Kentucky's new Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has announced he will begin to dismantle his state's health insurance exchange, kynect.

One step forward, one step back.