The Health Shopper

Louisiana is exploring the possibility of shifting some state funding away from charity care toward vouchers for adults to purchase health insurance in the private market. Proponents of the reform are touting the plan as a free market alternative to charity care that will allow uninsured adults with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty line to have more choice of physicians and hospitals and the ability to get non-emergency care outside of the hospital. The proposal could also make care more accessible. Historically, uninsured Louisiana residents have had to obtain medical care through state charity hospitals, but many of the hospitals have been unable to reopen since Hurricane Katrina.

Other states, such as New Mexico, have begun to explore individual mandate plans modeled after Massachusetts. According to recent estimates, nearly 300,000 previously uninsured Massachusetts residents have signed up for health coverage, which is somewhere between half and three quarters of the previously uninsured population in the state.