Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) vote in the Louisiana House of Representatives

When the Supreme Court essentially left the Affordable Care Act (i.e., “Obamacare”) intact last year in a 5-4 decision, it also allowed the states to choose whether they wanted to participate in the expansion of the Medicaid program. That created a situation where each state is is independently deciding whether to participate in this part of the program (and in the process accept federal monies).

Louisiana is one of the states which has decided against participating in the Medicaid expansion, although there recently have been a series of “test votes” in the Legislature to change that. The most recent attempt was by Representative Pat Smith (D-Baton Rouge), whose bill failed to pass the House 59-37. Essentially, this was a party line vote: the House has 58 Republicans, 45 Democrats, and 2 Independents. Republicans voted 53-0 against the legislation (5 Republican legislators did not vote), while Democrats supported it 37-4 (4 Democratic legislators did not vote), and both of the House’s Independents voted against the legislation. Below is a graphical representation of the vote on the bill by state House district.