Greg Hilburn

USA TODAY Network

Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy blames Medicaid for everything from cuts to the state's popular college scholarship program TOPS to low teacher pay to Baton Rouge traffic jams in a column he provided to state newspapers this week.

Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration dismissed Kennedy's claims as false and political. Edwards' spokesman Richard Carbo said Kennedy must be using "alternative facts," a reference to what a spokesman for President Trump cited when defending the president's press secretary for errant inaugural crowd estimates.

Kennedy also criticized Edwards' Department of Health Secretary Rebekah Gee directly.

"Are you wondering why Louisiana's budget is such a mess?" he wrote. "A big reason is the amount of money taxpayers are spending on Medicaid."

Edwards expanded the state's Medicaid program in 2016 through the Affordable Care Act after former Gov. Bobby Jindal had refused to do so.

"The rising cost of Medicaid is why TOPS has been cut," wrote Kennedy, who was Louisiana's treasurer before being elected to the Senate. "The rising cost of Medicaid is why we can’t pay our teachers more. The rising cost of Medicaid is why the interstate is a parking lot in Baton Rouge. The rising cost of Medicaid is a core reason the state is running deficits."

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Gee refuted virtually everything Kennedy wrote, saying rather than Medicaid expansion being a drag on the state budget, it bolstered state finances to prevent deeper cuts.

"As the recent treasurer I'm surprised he doesn't know the facts," Gee said in an interview with USA Today Network of Louisiana. "He should know the Medicaid expansion created $184 million in savings."

Gee said $67 million of the Medicaid savings went to TOPS, although it's impossible to say exactly where the savings went since the Legislature can fund or cut where it sees fit.

"This year for the first time in a decade (the agency) came in with a savings," Gee said. "He's just plain wrong."

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Gee said the Medicaid expansion brought $2 billion in federal funding the state and insured about 380,000 Louisianians. "Those people have had 50,000 primary care visits, many of which were life saving after cancers and other problems were discovered that could have gone untreated," she said. "I don't know what more that could have been done to make (Kennedy) happy."

Gee didn't dispute the state's Medicaid budget has nearly doubled since 2008, but pointed out most of the funding is federal, which Kennedy acknowledged, including 90 percent for the expansion.

Still, Kennedy wrote even with the feds picking up most of the tab, the state's portion has grown and will continue to grow.

"The spending isn't going to plateau, either," Kennedy wrote. "It's just going to grow and grow and grow until we're slashing schoolteachers' salaries just to sustain Medicaid. ... It's time to get Louisiana’s Medicaid costs under control. It’s time for (the Department of Health) to do its job."

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He also took a shot at Gee.

"(Department of Health Secretary) Dr. Rebekah Gee also needs to do her job," Kennedy wrote. "She is an accomplished physician.Yet all she seems to do is complain that she doesn’t have enough taxpayer money despite the fact that Medicaid already consumes 41 percent of all state spending. Enough already. Dr. Gee needs to take the amount of state and federal Medicaid dollars given her and make it work. If she can’t,she should say so and resign. She makes $236,001 a year plus benefits.

"We’ll be able to find someone in Louisiana to do the job if she can’t. Louisiana taxpayers and Medicaid patients deserve better than they are getting right now."

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1