The Jindal Health Care Mystique

Do you remember when Jindal proposed privatizing the LSU Hospital System, and submitted a plan to our legislators that was full of blank pages relating to the funding costs and how much money it would save? A plan that now the Center for Medicaid Services unequivocally has rejected and, as a result, might jeopardize up to $500 million in federal health care funding.

Do you also remember how Jindal took one of the most successful  state-run medical insurance plans in the country, the  Group Benefits PPO,  privatized it, and depleted the medical reserve funds (monies used to pay member claims) from over one half billion dollars to less than $55 million in the two years of its operation?

Finally, do you remember the draconian cuts to the medical services for the disabled and those in need of mental health services?

All of these were approved by our legislators who bought into the hype that Bobby was a highly intelligent Rhodes Scholar and a proven guru in designing health care delivery systems.

Well, apparently we have a bunch of slow learners as our representatives, for now they are considering Senate Bill 682 which contains Jindal’s counter proposal to Obamacare, dubbed Bobbycare.

The only problem is there are NO definitive costs included in the plan, and it contains few specifics, only generalizations.  I guess our esteemed legislators will just have to adopt Pelosi’s philosophy, “We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.”  Or, in this case, to found out how much it will cost and how it will work.  Talk about a bunch of hypocrites.

And to make matters worse, both of Bobby’s leading puppets, Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary, Kathy Kliebert, and Commissioner of Administration, Kristy Nichols, have assured our legislators that the state budget can afford, the yet UNKNOWN, costs.

This assurance from two individuals who have helped push a budget that has seemed more like a comedy sketch than a professionally conducted process, beginning with the DOUBLE COUNTING of money collected during last year's tax amnesty program. That error created a $43 million deficit in Jindal’s proposed health and hospitals budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

How much longer will it take for our legislators to come to the conclusion that when it comes to delivering quality, financially sound, health care services to Louisiana citizens, Bobby hasn’t a clue?