Medicaid Expansion Timeline Under Edwards May Be Slowed

BATON ROUGE (AP) — While he pledged to expand Louisiana's Medicaid program on "day one" in office, Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards is finding out that might be trickier than he thought.

         The financing plan enacted by lawmakers is caught up in a swirl of legal questions, and Edwards is saying it might take a bit longer to expand Medicaid than he promised.

         Whatever the delay, Edwards says providing the government-funded health insurance to the working poor remains a top priority for his new administration when it takes office in mid-January.

         But questions have been raised about the workability of legislation passed earlier this year that would provide the state's cost-share of a Medicaid expansion. Edwards says he doesn't want to enact the expansion until he's sure the state's financing share is covered.

         – by AP Reporter Melinda Deslatte