Jindal offers alternative to health law

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal unveiled a 26-page health plan that emphasizes the role of states in keeping health costs down while giving consumers more flexibility. He also reiterates the need to repeal Obamacare.

The Washington Post: Bobby Jindal, With An Eye On 2016, Unveils Plan To Replace Obama Health-Care Law
In his 26-page plan, Jindal lays out a long critique of the health-care law and reiterates his belief that it needs to be done away with. He sets forth a bevy of ideas to replace it that have run through conservative thought for years, in some cases renaming them and in other cases suggesting new variations on old themes (Costa and Goldstein, 4/2).

The Associated Press: Jindal: GOP Needs 'Obamacare' Alternative
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, on Wednesday offered a Republican alternative to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, saying states should play a greater role in containing health care costs while giving consumers more flexibility in choosing insurance plans. Jindal said Obama's health care law should be "repealed in its entirety" but said Republicans need to offer a better way to reform the health care system, wading into one of the most contentious policy issues in the upcoming midterm elections (4/2).

The Wall Street Journal: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal Proposes Alternative To Affordable Care Act
Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, trying to distinguish himself from other potential presidential candidates, outlined a replacement for the Affordable Care Act that he said would expand health coverage to more Americans by making insurance more affordable (Reinhard, 4/2).

Politico: Bobby Jindal Dismisses Obamacare Numbers, Unveils Own Reform Plan
Jindal's health package is predicated on a full repeal of the health care law, however. He said the longer Obamacare enrolls people, the less interested he is in accepting its massive expansion of Medicaid – an optional program that offers states billions of dollars to cover their poorest residents. Asked what he'd tell Republican colleagues who support Medicaid expansion, Jindal said his proposal wouldn't stand in the way of states that want to expand Medicaid on their own. He pointed out that Obamacare is offering states more money to cover able-bodied adults through the expansion than to cover disabled children, who were typically eligible for the traditional Medicaid program (Cheney, 4/2).

CNN: Jindal On Obamacare Sign-Ups: So What
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a possible contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, waved off the Obama administration's jubilance over this week's news that more than 7 million people have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. "So what that under the threat of a government mandate they are able to get to this target of 7.1 million?" Jindal said Wednesday. Jindal was speaking to reporters at a Washington breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, where he revealed his own health care proposal that he claimed would lower costs and make insurance more affordable while giving states more control (Hamby, 4/2).

Reuters: With An Eye On 2016, Louisiana's Jindal Offers Healthcare Plan 
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who is testing the waters for the 2016 presidential race, on Wednesday unveiled a set of ideas on U.S. healthcare policy that he said could take the place of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law. Republicans have put their call to repeal Obamacare at the center of their campaigns for November's congressional elections, but have yet to coalesce around an alternative to the health law (Debenedetti, 4/2). 

CBS News: Bobby Jindal: Republicans Can't Just Run Against Obamacare
President Obama on Tuesday definitively declared that "the Affordable Care Act is here to stay." Yet just one day later, Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., rolled out a 26-page plan for replacing the controversial health care law. "We should absolutely repeal the law," Jindal said at a meeting in Washington hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. That said, he continued, "Too many Republicans in this town think that we can just run against Obamacare and we can't say anything else until November." Republicans are revving up their opposition to the health law ahead of this November, but Jindal acknowledged "it's no secret" that he's looking beyond the midterm elections and considering his own presidential prospects in 2016 (Condon and Alemany, 4/2).

The Fiscal Times: Jindal Releases Proposal To Replace Obamacare
There are some Republicans on the national stage so fixated on doing away with the Affordable Care Act that their calls to "repeal Obamacare" take on the character of a nervous tic. Few of them, though, offer any substantive proposal for what to do when about providing health care once it's gone. On Wednesday, Louisiana Governor and possible 2016 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, Bobby Jindal, released his "The Freedom and Empowerment Plan: The Prescription for Conservative Consumer-Focused Health Reform," which he describes as "the foundation for true health reform – one that puts doctors and patients, not government bureaucrats, at the heart of all policy decisions" (Garver, 4/2).