LDH Says More Than 351,000 Louisianians Are Enrolled In Medicaid Under Expansion

More than 8,600 Louisiana residents are receiving care for chronic conditions under the expansion of Medicaid. That’s according to the Louisiana Department of Health, who says enrollment has surpassed 351,000 individuals. LDH Secretary Dr. Rebekah Gee says many people are now getting healthcare they weren’t receiving while uninsured.

“Almost 40,000 adults have gotten a preventative visit, that means a primary care visit to the doctor. We’ve had over 3,500 women get a screening for breast cancer.”

Gee says treatment has started for nearly 600 adults newly diagnosed with diabetes and over 3,000 adults received colonoscopies and 786 patients had precancerous polyps removed. She says the Medicaid expansion should lead to better health outcomes for working citizens who were previously uninsured.

“These are people that made enough money that they couldn’t qualify before so they’re working people who could just not get access to affordable healthcare.”

Gee says they are still unclear with will happen with the expanded Medicaid program when President-elect Trump takes office. She says if the expansion were to be repealed, Louisiana would lose 4 billion dollars and thousands would be uninsured.

“It’s an easy thing to say you’re going to repeal it but when you actually take healthcare away from 20 million people and in our state 350,000 people, people who are working, people who most of whom voted for Trump, I think it’s a different reality.”