goodness gracious !

per WaPo,

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) will wade into the national debate over health care this week by penning op-eds in Politico and the Wall Street Journal and appearing on a series of cable chat shows today and tomorrow

Get ready girls and boys, you are going to hear a lot about his bona fides and qualifications on this vitally important issue:

‘He was appointed to run his state’s HHS as a 24 year old wunderkind!’

‘Nobody’s done more to help the people of Louisana gain access to healthcare than Gov Jindal !‘

uh, not so much . . .The Nation:

In 2000, shortly after Jindal’s term ended, the Louisiana State Medical Society surveyed more than 600 doctors. Its report showed that 37 percent of the doctors said they were treating far fewer Medicaid patients than they were two years earlier. A further 37 percent said they had stopped accepting any new Medicaid patients

Jindal also initiated cuts to the healthcare system that made it much harder for doctors to treat poor patients. From reducing Medicaid payments made to facilities that care for the mentally ill to laying off hundreds of mental health workers to denying certain prescription drugs to poor patients

Ancient history you say. Okay fine, let’s look at his record as Governor -

He appointed Alan Levine to head Louisiana HHS – Levine was Jeb Bush’s point man on privatization in Florida and he was ever so successful:

…an attorney at Legal Aid recently told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, "the Medicaid reform program has been imposed on poor and disabled people, and they are not getting the medical care and rights the law promises them"

color me surprised.

Think Progress has more

Expect the bobbleheads to give this clown wide berth, affording him every opportunity to boast of his cutting costs (!) without a word of the very real human toll .in his wake:

Lousiana is #2 in:

- Infant mortality, with an average of 10 infant deaths per 1000 live births;

- Cancer deaths, which kill 223 out of every 100,000 Louisianans; and

- Premature death, where poor preventive care practices annually kill 11,000 of our citizens before their time.

linkage (pdf)

hey, did I mention he cut costs ?