Democratic candidate backs expanding Medicaid, GOP too but with conditions

State Rep. John Bel Edwards gave strong support for expanding health care to the working poor in Louisiana, while Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne offered his cautious backing, at a gubernatorial forum in New Orleans Tuesday night.

Edwards, a Democrat from in Amite in Tangipahoa Parish, would expand Medicaid under the Obama administration’s health care act on his first day as governor through an executive order.

“We’re talking about people who don’t qualify for Medicaid because they work,” Edwards told the crowd at Dillard University, adding that the infusion of federal dollars would have saved the state $52 million in 2015.

Dardenne, a Republican from Baton Rouge, said he would appoint a task force upon taking office to craft a plan to seek a waiver from the federal government to allow Louisiana to accept the expansion with some changes. The task force would present its plan to him within 30 to 45 days. “I want a waiver that grants Louisiana the flexibility,” Dardenne said.

Read more: http://theadvocate.com/news/13579689-123/democratic-candidate-backs-expanding-medicaid