BATON ROUGE – Louisiana’s Medicaid program is the largest item in the state budget, and consumes more state general-fund dollars than anything except education. It also is a lifeline for nearly 1.8 million Louisiana citizens who are either low-income or have a disability.
To better understand this critical program, the Louisiana Budget Project has developed two new resources aimed at helping lawmakers, the media and the general public.
Understanding Medicaid in Louisiana is a chart book that largely uses graphs and tables to explain how the state’s Medicaid insurance program works and how it impacts the health, academic and economic outcomes of the state.
LBP also released a video that includes testimony where Louisianans who have health insurance via Medicaid explain what the program means to them.
“While the chart book provides compelling data and information related to the critical role of Medicaid, the stories provide living, breathing examples of how Medicaid is saving lives and boosting financial security in our state,” said Jan Moller, Executive Director of the Louisiana Budget Project. “The stories also show how expanding eligibility has helped keep Louisianans out of the emergency room and helped ensure that they’re healthy enough to learn, work and care for their families.”
Click here to view the video.