admin

As the U.S. Senate mulls a vote on the GOP's recently released bill designed to gut the Affordable Care Act, Louisiana officials and medical groups are urging senators to consider the potentially devastating impact it could have to people relying on Medicaid's expansion in the state.

In July 2016, Gov. John Bel Edwards approved Medicaid's expansion to include coverage for more than 433,000 people in the state, including more than 100,000 receiving preventive cancer treatment and more than 15,000 women who have received breast cancer screenings. More than 150 people were diagnosed with colon cancer after screenings made possible through recent Medicaid coverage.

Today's report from the*Congressional Budget Office*estimates the Senate's "Better Care Reconciliation Act" would reduce the number of uninsured people in the U.S. by 22 million*while reducing the federal deficit by $321 billion from 2017-2026 ? mostly by cutting spending on Medicaid, which would decline in 2026 by 26 percent compared to projections based on current law.?