Bill Could Clear Way For Jindal's Health Care Privatization Push

[RamboLiberal]

A bill that will soon be debated in the Louisiana legislature contains language that appears to clear the way for the state to use money from the potential privatization of the Office of Group Benefits (OGB), the agency that manages state employees' health insurance, to help plug a budget hole.

As the Associated Press reports, the "fund sweep" bill authored by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Fannin (D) proposes to scrape $231 million from state agencies and put it into an "Overcollections Fund," which would help cover the state's $1.6 billion budget shortfall. This kind of "sweep" is not unusual in Louisiana -- though the size of this year's proposal is.

"Nobody would have wanted it if there'd been another source of money. Rather than continue to cut health and hospitals and continue to cut higher education, then they chose this way," Fannin told the AP.

But the bill also includes language that specifically addresses OGB, which manages the health insurance of around 250,000 people.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/louisiana_bill_appears_to_clear_way_for_jindals_he.php?ref=fpblg

[sakabatou]

1. *facepalm*