The Governor is an expert in health care policy? Really? Perhaps someone should page Rep. Bill Cassidy, who's actually a doctor, and had some interesting things to say about Governor PBJ's handling of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals during the Foster Administration during the 2003 gubernatorial campaign: (emphasis added)
The Jindal Record is Poor One
The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.) - September 18, 2003
Working with uninsured patients, medical education and public health programs, I took interest in Gov. Mike Foster's advertisement printed in The Sunday Advocate on Sept. 7 in which he praises Bobby Jindal's record as secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals and in particular Jindal's accomplishment in cutting the DHH budget. For those whose concern about health care goes beyond cutting budgets, the Jindal record is poor.
When Jindal was appointed secretary of DHH, he published his list of goals. Among these were: "ensuring high quality health care services will be available for the indigent, disabled, working poor ..."; "focusing on primary and preventive care ..." and "developing Louisiana as a Southern regional center of excellence for medical education" (http://www.geocities.com/bcassi/JindalGoals.html). None of these goals was met.
As he cut Medicaid, reimbursement for health-care providers was cut below their cost of treating patients ("La. Medicaid cuts implemented," The Advocate, July 2, 1996). Paying physicians and hospitals below cost decreased the number of physicians who saw Medicaid patients and forced providers who did to shift the cost for caring for Medicaid patients to the privately insured ("Medicaid patients dwindling, Lower payments to doctors may be cause," The Advocate, March 27, 2000). Jim Brown, then commissioner of insurance, predicted that cost-shifting could raise private medical insurance premiums 20 percent ("Plan cuts state Medicaid," The Advocate, Feb. 19, 1997). In 2003, it was estimated that the actual figure was 17 percent. The effect of this has been to make health insurance so expensive that many employees dropped their insurance ("Rising insurance costs affect companies, employees," The Advocate, April 20, 2003). They are priced out of insurance as a result of Jindal's policies, whose goal was increasing access to health care.
Another goal was improving preventive care. Childhood immunization is a cornerstone of preventive care. In 1995 and 1996, Louisiana was ranked 10th in the United States in the percent of infants 19 to 35 months old who were completely immunized. In 1997, as Foster and Jindal assumed control, Louisiana fell to 21st, in 1998 to 30th and in 1999 to 38th (http://www.cdc.gov/nip/coverage/#NIS).
Indeed, after eight years of the Foster/ Jindal administration, Louisiana has now been ranked as the least-healthy state in the nation for three straight years, despite spending more per capita on health care than the national average. The problem, according to David Hood, the current secretary of DHH, is inadequate access to primary care and preventive services ("State spending ranks high but overall health ranks low," The Advocate, April 13, 2003). Yet improving these was the Foster/Jindal goal.
The last goal was "developing Louisiana as a Southern regional center of excellence for medical education." Jindal left the state before he could effect this, but the current Foster budget endangers medical education. ("Sharing the misery," Baton Rouge Business Report, September 2, 2003).
Bobby Jindal is unquestionably a nice man who is young, well-spoken, and intelligent. Yet he failed in his three goals as Secretary of DHH. Contrary to what Gov. Foster says, Jindal's record does not indicate that he is capable of the much harder job of Governor.
For the Governor to blast President Obama's legislative policies on health care when his record as the head of the Department of Health and Hospitals fits in really well with the Republican agenda on health insurance reform - help the health insurance industry reap record profits at the expense of the health of the American people - is the height of hypocrisy.
