Why is Medicaid expansion such a big deal in Mississippi’s gubernatorial race? Medicaid provides our state with critical preventive programs that help keep our babies and mothers healthy. Mississippi was the last state to accept Medicaid in 1969. As a result, not only did our infant mortality rate drop dramatically, thousands of Mississippi adult taxpayers are alive today because of original Medicaid.
Medicaid expansion simply makes sense. As a registered nurse, I have seen firsthand the benefits of Medicaid. As a nursing professor and former neonatal intensive care nurse (NICU), my work with patients and nursing education has been a privilege in Mississippi. However, as Babe Ruth said, “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.”
Fast forward to the present. Mississippi led the nation in the 2022 overturn of Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade 1973 decision regarding abortion rights. Tate Reeves vowed that “Mississippi will be relentless in our support of mothers and children.” Reeves has simply not delivered on that promise.
We have a bonafide health crisis in our state. Most recently, over 50,000 patients lost Medicaid coverage after federal Covid pandemic funds dried up. Brandon Presley has long called for the expansion of Medicaid, something Governor Tate Reeves has stubbornly opposed even while a third of hospitals around the state teeter on the brink of bankruptcy. When a Mississippi community loses its hospitals and facilities, everyone suffers. Too many of our rural hospitals have already closed, including in our poorest region, the Mississippi delta. Our state is one of only 10 states that has failed to expand Medicaid. Will we be last one more time?
Both our state and the federal government jointly fund Medicaid. Because Mississippi is one of the poorest and unhealthiest states in the nation, we receive the most generous portions of federal funding. The federal government currently pays 84.5% of Medicaid expenses in Mississippi.
Medicaid expansion would help boost Mississippi’s economy. In a state of about 3 million residents, the program now covers more than 752,000 people or 25% of the population. Medicaid payments help keep hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, nursing homes and other health facilities in business. People want to live and do business in communities where they have access to healthcare.
Medicaid pays hospitals. Governor Reeves believes that if hospital and doctor bills are paid, this may make residents quit jobs. Medicaid does not use funds to pay patients, so how does this make sense? Governor Tate Reeves is traveling the state vowing he will continue to block Medicaid expansion. His stubborn refusal to accept Medicaid expansion funds for our state looks foolish and indifferent. Medicaid, contrary to our governor’s opinion, is not welfare cash.
Hospitals, providers, and facilities are paid for qualified services, no funds are given handed to patient recipients. With Medicaid expansion, Mississippi could save money for other critical state needs.
Most of the total savings from Medicaid expansion would result from a reduction in uncompensated care costs. In states like Mississippi, with extreme levels of poverty and a high population of uninsured or underinsured patients, hospitals bear this enormous debt. The vast majority (70%) of these Medicaid recipients are the working poor: people who hold jobs but don’t earn enough to afford health insurance. Without Medicaid expansion, Mississippians will continue to pay the high price in lost dollars, jobs, and lives.
By most estimates, Medicaid expansion would increase the population of the state by up to 10,000 new residents over the next decade, mostly health-related professionals and staff taxpayers. This is good news for our state that continues to lose residents.
According to a recent survey, 70% of Mississippi residents are in favor of Medicaid expansion. If an overwhelming majority of residents feel that their state can do more for our most vulnerable citizens, elected leaders should figure out how to make that happen, not lecture them as Reeves does with “Get a job.” Sounds a bit like blaming the victim.
Brandon Presley believes that life for Mississippians should and can be better and healthier. And that our tax money at the least be ‘adequately funded, wisely managed and honestly administered.’
Tate Reeves thinks we are healthy enough if we just work more.
