Obamacare on very different paths in Colorado, Louisiana

With many provisions of President Obama's Affordable Care Act soon taking effect, Colorado and Louisiana show how the sweeping federal law better known as Obamacare is -- and isn't -- being implemented on the state level.

In Colorado, lawmakers opted to enact the Obamacare provision that expands Medicaid health coverage to more poor people.

The new law, however, creates some big dilemmas for employers. Alan Luzetti, a small business owner in the Denver area, now offers health insurance to his full-time employees. But under Obamacare, he doesn't have to. If he keeps insuring those employees, then he has to offer coverage to part-time workers as well. (Scroll down to find out what he decided to do.)

Meanwhile, Louisiana is opting out of the Medicaid expansion, even though the federal government will pay the full cost of expanded coverage for poor people during the first three years Obamacare is in effect.

Laura Johnson, a Louisiana resident who has congestive heart failure. She can’t afford the medicines she’s supposed to take since her income is just $835 a month.

"I added them up: about $298 a month if I had to buy all of them,” she said. “Because one bottle was about $140, just one bottle."

Instead of Medicaid coverage and prescriptions, Johnson has been using a series of home remedies.

Luzetti, the Colorado business owner, later decided to keep offering his employees insurance, but said if coverage gets too expensive he might have to cancel it.

Although Johnson was denied Medicaid by Louisiana, she recently got Medicare through a disability claim filed with the federal government. It's the first time she's ever been guaranteed health insurance.