Category: News

A wide majority of Mississippians across partisan and demographic lines supports expanding Medicaid to provide health coverage for the working poor, according to a newly released Mississippi Today/Siena College poll. The poll showed 80% of respondents — including 70% of Republicans — either strongly agree or somewhat agree the state should “accept federal funds to expand Medicaid.” The numbers appear to show a continued shift of voter sentiment in what has long been a partisan battle. Mississippi’s elected Republican governors and other leaders for the last decade have blocked Medicaid expansion via the Affordable Care Act and the billions in federal dollars that would have come with it. This resistance continues even as struggling hospitals and more citizens in the poorest, unhealthiest state cry for help. “Yes, I support it,” said Joy Cevera, 60, a Republican voter from Oxford who said she generally supports Gov. Tate Reeves but disagrees with him on Medicaid expansion. Several poll respondents agreed to talk with Mississippi Today about their responses. For Cevera, a disability-retired cook, the issue is personal.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has unveiled a package of proposals aimed at saving rural hospitals from closing down, leaving Mississippians without access to reliable health care. Flanked by Senate colleagues for the announcement, Hosemann told reporters on Wednesday that the proposals would remove some restrictions on hospital partnerships, attempt to keep nurses in the state and encourage hospitals to expand physician residency programs. “We have come to the conclusion that there needs to be significant positive changes in order to provide our citizens with necessary rural health care,” Hosemann said. Legislative action under the Capitol dome this year is a matter of life and death for hospitals and rural Mississippians. State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney previously told lawmakers that 38 of the state’s hospitals face serious financial troubles and are at risk of closure. This represents 54% of Mississippi’s rural hospitals. One piece of legislation Hosemann is pushing is a bill that would remove several antitrust restrictions from hospitals and allow them to collaborate with other hospitals or nonprofit organizations. The legislation, for example, would allow North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo to partner with the Tippah County Hospital in Ripley to provide OB-GYN services for Northeast Mississippi residents.

A new Mississippi Today/Siena College poll showed wide support for Mississippi expanding Medicaid to cover the working poor, including 70% support from Republican respondents. The numbers appear to show a continued shift of voter sentiment in what has long been a partisan battle. Mississippi’s elected Republican governors and other leaders for the last decade have blocked Medicaid expansion via the Affordable Care Act and the billions in federal dollars that would have come with it. This resistance continues even as struggling hospitals and more citizens in the poorest, unhealthiest state cry for help. Several poll respondents agreed to talk with Mississippi Today about their support or opposition to expanding the federal-state health care program to cover people making up to 138% of the poverty level, or the working poor.

Amid a nursing shortage that is worsening poor health outcomes in Mississippi, nursing programs at the state’s public universities are turning away hundreds of potential students every year because of insufficient faculty sizes. Alfred Rankins Jr., Mississippi’s commissioner of higher education, said at a legislative hearing Tuesday that nursing programs have struggled to retain faculty members because of the state’s lower-than-average salaries for public university employees. “Unfortunately, our nursing programs must turn away approximately 300 qualified nursing applicants each year because of limited faculty numbers,” Rankins said. The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning is requesting a $5 million increase in state funds for the fiscal year that begins July 1 to beef up nursing faculties at public universities, which Rankins said will help alleviate the shortage. About 73% of nursing graduates in Mississippi still work in the state after five years, according to the agency.

Mississippi legislators had a light workload the first two weeks of their three-month session, but they are about to get busy debating proposals that could affect health care, voting rights and other issues. Monday was the deadline to file general bills. House and Senate committees face a Jan. 31 deadline to consider bills filed in their own chamber. Bills that survive will then face a Feb. 9 deadline for consideration in the full House or Senate. Then the two chambers will exchange bills for more work. Legislators face deadlines later in the session for bills dealing with budgets, taxes and borrowing. Here’s a look at some of the general bills: HOSPITALS — Multiple bills seek to help financially struggling hospitals by creating grant programs or tax credits. MEDICAID — Multiple bills seek expansion of Medicaid to people who work low-wage jobs that don’t provide private health insurance. A 2010 federal health care law allowed expansion, and Mississippi is among 11 states that have not taken the option. Other bills — including House Bill 426, which has bipartisan support — would allow extension of Medicaid coverage from 60 days to one year after a woman has given birth.

Mississippi doesn’t have the medical workforce to address a wide range of poor health outcomes, from high rates of maternal and infant mortality to severe cases of diabetes that require the amputation of limbs, the state’s top health officer said. Dr. Daniel Edney, who leads the Mississippi State Department of Health, told lawmakers Thursday that the state health department is short 150 nurses and low health care access in the state’s impoverished Delta region is becoming “scary.” The challenges have placed Mississippi near the bottom of national rankings that track the performance of state health care systems. “We may be at the bottom today, but we don’t have to stay there,” Edney said. “I’m just begging for partners to help us … because we have too many Mississippians who are dying prematurely. We have too many who are aging with poor health and we have too many people struggling for access to care.”

A 14th Mississippi child has died from COVID-19, the state’s department of health said Wednesday. The infant under the age of one was the most recent child to die in Mississippi. The child was the first person under 18 to die from COVID-19 in the state in 2023. According to state department of health data, eight children between the ages of 11 and 17 have died since the first cases of the virus were identified in 2020, making that age range the most prone to pediatric deaths in the state so far. Dr. Paul Byers, the state epidemiologist, said the death should serve as a reminder for residents to get vaccinated and to make sure that they are up to date on booster shots to protect against the virus. “Vaccination not only protects you, but it also protects those around you who may not be eligible for vaccination or who may be at higher risk for complications due to age or underlying health problems,” Byers said in a news release. “It is important to stay up to date and receive the most recent bivalent booster when eligible in order to provide the best protection against infection, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19.”

A standing-room-only crowd greeted Natchez’s representatives in the state House and Senate at the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce’s annual Legislative Breakfast Monday morning. State Sen. Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez, State Rep. Sam Mims, R-McComb, State Rep. Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez and State Sen. Kelvin Butler, D-Magnolia, each spoke about what they see as priorities for the legislature, which is about three weeks into its 90-day session in January. Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson welcomed the legislators, as did Adams County Board of Supervisors President Warren Gaines. Gibson and Gaines laid out a list of projects important to Natchez to which the city would look to the legislators for support, like drainage issues, continued improvements to rail and air service in the county and the creation of a liquid loading dock at the Natchez-Adams County Port. Gibson urged the legislators to continue support of movie tax credits, which he said have been responsible for creating numerous jobs and tax dollars into the Natchez and Adams County economy. Gibson also urged legislators to throw their support toward expanding Medicaid in Mississippi, which he said has been “proven to work in so many states. Let’s look at the states where Medicaid expansion has been successful and follow their example.”    

Mississippi babies are more likely to die before their first birthday than infants anywhere else in the country. Mississippi has the highest preterm birth rate and the lowest birth weight rate in America, and one of every seven babies born here are preterm. Black babies are twice as likely to die as their white counterparts in Mississippi. Mothers who give birth in Mississippi are more likely to die here than in 45 other states, with a pregnancy-related mortality rate nearly double the national average. A whopping 86% of pregnancy-related deaths occur postpartum, including 37% after six weeks. Black women are three times likelier than white women to die of a pregnancy-related cause. These numbers are made worse because of the state’s high rates of poverty and uninsured people. Across Mississippi, about 65% of babies are born to mothers on Medicaid. Because of lag times in getting approved for coverage and a 60-day cutoff of postpartum care coverage, mothers often do not receive the prenatal and postpartum care they need — care that could prevent major problems.

Among the flawed arguments made by opponents of Medicaid expansion in Mississippi is this one: Because Medicaid generally does not compensate hospitals enough for what it takes to provide the care, they could actually end up doing worse financially if the state expands the program to cover the working poor. That was what Douglas Carswell, the president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, wrote over the weekend in explaining his conservative think tank’s opposition to expansion. “Every time a rural hospital treats someone on Medicaid, the hospital normally loses money. How would expanding such a loss-making system improve the financial position of rural hospitals. It wouldn’t,” wrote Carswell, whose organization claims a number of adherents among Mississippi’s GOP lawmakers and state officials. “The problem is not too little Medicaid, but too much of it,” he continued. “Drawing more people and health care providers into this loss-making system solves nothing — and might make matters worse.”