Jindal: Medicaid program on skids

BATON ROUGE -- Arguing that "doing nothing is not an option, " Gov. Bobby Jindal on Friday proposed restructuring Louisiana's health-care program for the poor into a private insurance model that relies on managed-care principles to control costs and improve health outcomes.

"Our health-care system today is not working to help the very people it's designed to serve, " Jindal said at a late-afternoon press briefing to announce the Louisiana Health First initiative.

Jindal said change is needed because the state's Medicaid program, which serves more than 1 million poor, elderly and disabled Louisianians, is on an unsustainable financial path.

Whereas the program consumed about 8.5 percent of the general fund budget in 2006, it is projected to take up 21 percent by 2011, the governor said...

[finally, sanity. But will anyone listen?]

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