Norton Wants Obamacare Implemented In Louisiana [AUDIO]

Louisiana State Representative Barbara Norton wants to make sure the Pelican State opts  into the federal government's Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and is doing so by pre-filing a bill and a concurrent resolution to make sure it happens.

Right now, the Jindal administration will not be opting into Obamacare, but Norton argues that the state is missing out on funds from the government that we are already paying.

"The funds that we [the state government] get at the end of the year, our income tax, the citizens of Louisiana, the money will be subsidized and it will go to other states," Norton explained to KEEL News.  "The taxes that paid that money, with other states opting in, we'll be paying taxes on the money for them."

As it was explained by union leaders attending the representative's news conference, the state's taxpayers will lose the healthcare funding that exists now ahead of Obamacare.  That funding would be replaced by the funds available to states who "opt-in" into the program.  Norton explained that the state would be foolish not to opt-in and get 3 years free from the federal government.

"The federal government has that money set aside for affordable healthcare and that money will go directly to those individuals that are sick," said Norton.  "But if we not except it, it will so somewhere else but we will still be paying the taxes on it."

And cancer patient Russell Wingfield told KEEL News that he would benefit from the Affordable Care Act, saying he is unable to get his cancer treatments covered by Medicaid because he has not be able to obtain full-time employment since he was laid off during the recession.

"I don't know if that would personally change my situation," Wingfield told KEEL News.  "I have to do that on an individual basis."

However, Wingfield does believe that the government should be there to help him, "Everyone deserves health care.  Everyone does.  It's America.  We're an industrialized, first-rate country and I don't understand why everyone can't have health care."

The full interview with Russell Wingfield:

Part One

Part Two