Even with $523 million in announced health care cuts, Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has slashed only two-thirds of the spending needed to close the entire gap in Louisiana's Medicaid budget.
The administration is banking on better-than-expected revenue projections to close the remaining budget hole.
If that doesn't pan out in the next few months, more reductions are on the horizon. And even if the funding does show up, there could be legal hurdles to accessing the cash to fill the Medicaid budget.
The Jindal administration announced $523 million in cuts last week, largely to the LSU public hospital system. But the estimated gap in Medicaid financing was $859 million.
Another $94 million in state funding will be needed to draw down the federal matching dollars to fill that hole.