Louisiana: New Dem Gov sets July as target for Medicaid expansion

Here's the difference that a state election can make:

Louisiana Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards has set an ambitious timeline for a Medicaid expansion, saying he wants to have government-funded health insurance cards in thousands more people's hands by July 1.

...that's assuming the Republican-led Legislature doesn't try to throw up any roadblocks seeking to slow down an expansion effort.

Edwards, a Democrat who takes office Monday, said he would issue an executive order "within 24 hours from being sworn in" that starts the work required to expand Medicaid as allowed under the federal healthcare law. Health coverage for the people who would be eligible for the insurance under the expansion, he said, would begin July 1.

...The incoming health secretary estimated that about 300,000 people, mainly the working poor, would be enrolled for Medicaid under an expansion.

Side Note to keep in mind: As I noted last week, since Gallup's quarterly uninsured surveys don't include children, and the adult U.S. population is around 246 million, that means that every 250K people who gain (or lose) coverage bumps the Gallup number up (or down) by 0.1 percentage point.

Assuming 250K of the 300K eligible are enrolled by July, that would single-handedly drop Gallup's rank of the national uninsured rate from 11.9% to 11.8%.