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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.”

A committee made up of members appointed by state leaders voted unanimously to recommend that the Legislature extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days to 12 months. The Mississippi Medical Care Advisory Committee, which is tasked by state law to advise the Division of Medicaid about “health and medical care services,” cast the vote in October. The committee is made up of 11 members appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. Dr. David Reeves, chairman of the committee and a physician on the Gulf Coast, penned a letter to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Jan. 11. He said the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Division of Neonatal Medicine made a presentation to the committee. “After consideration and review, with a unanimous vote, the Committee recommends, through legislative action, extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to 12 months. We feel this extension of coverage will be beneficial to both our mothers and babies and supports the pledge we have made to Mississippi’s women and children with the recent Supreme Court decision upholding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health,” Dr. Reeves wrote.

More Mississippians would prefer not to pay the 7% sales tax on groceries than not to pay the state income tax, according to a recent poll from Mississippi Today/Siena College. The poll, conducted Jan. 3-8, found 68% of respondents favor suspending the grocery tax, while 24% oppose ending the grocery tax. “The cost of food is high enough already,” Hinds County resident and poll respondent Lucinda Robinson told Mississippi Today. “We need some relief.” Robinson said she does not believe it is right to tax necessities like food and milk. “Eggs are so expensive that I just eat the chicken,” she said. Mississippi’s 7% tax on most retail items is one of the nation’s highest. In addition, most states either have a lower sales tax on groceries than on other items, or they just exempt groceries from being taxed altogether. Mississippi levies the full 7% on groceries.

The story has been updated to correct the number of organizations comprising the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas. It is 128. For years, state Sen. Phil Berger says, there was nobody in North Carolina who opposed Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act more vehemently than he did. “If there was somebody in the state of North Carolina that had spoken out publicly in opposition to Medicaid expansion more than me, I’d like to talk to that person,” Berger said in an interview last month. From the time the ACA passed in 2010 until last spring, “my attitude was Medicaid expansion was wrong for North Carolina,” he said. Berger, a Republican, is president pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate, the most powerful position in the chamber, so his opposition virtually guaranteed that the legislature would not expand the joint federal/state program to include an additional 600,000 adults with low incomes. That’s why Berger’s recent conversion from opponent to proponent has shot North Carolina to the top of the list of the states that are most likely to break ranks with the other 10 that have refused to expand Medicaid.

The Mississippi Legislature will address the state’s ongoing hospital closures, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn said in press interviews on Tuesday as the legislative session began. At a press conference in November last year, House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, highlighted the dire situation in Mississippi.”[T]he state’s only burn center has closed,” he said. “The only neonatal intensive care unit in the Delta has closed. A Jackson hospital that serves rural portions of Hinds County is reducing critical services to stay afloat. Greenwood Leflore Hospital itself is on life support, staying open only with the help of the City and County putting up money to keep it from closing its doors for good.” The City of Greenwood and Leflore County jointly own the facility. Hosemann, who is president of the Mississippi Senate, said Tuesday during a press conference that he recently visited Greenwood Leflore Hospital, noting that it has cut some health services, including obstetrics and gynecology.

In Mississippi, where elected officials have a long history of praising self-sufficiency and condemning federal antipoverty programs, a welfare scandal has exposed how millions of dollars were diverted to the rich and powerful — including pro athletes — instead of helping some of the neediest people in the nation. The misuse of welfare money rankles Nsombi Lambright-Haynes, executive director of One Voice, a nonprofit that works to help economically vulnerable communities in Mississippi. “It’s shameful and disgusting, especially when we’ve been a state where we hear discussion every year about poor people not needing resources and poor people being lazy and just needing to get up to work,” she said. The state has ranked among the poorest in the U.S. for decades, but only a fraction of its federal welfare money has been going toward direct aid to families. Instead, the Mississippi Department of Human Services allowed well-connected people to fritter away tens of millions of welfare dollars from 2016 to 2019, according to the state auditor and state and federal prosecutors.

As emergency federal pandemic funds for hospitals are dwindling, the health care crisis in Mississippi is progressing, according to a statement put out Tuesday by the Mississippi State Medical Association. The physicians group is calling on lawmakers and state leaders to act quickly to offset the burden of hospitals in the state caring for uninsured patients. Mississippi, one of only 11 states not to expand Medicaid and provide health insurance for hundreds of thousands of residents, has one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the nation. When hospitals care for these individuals, they are not reimbursed by any insurance company and incur a deficit referred to as “uncompensated care.” In 2021, hospitals statewide sustained almost $600 million in uncompensated care costs, according to the Mississippi Hospital Association. That is almost double the amount from 2010. The statement from MSMA referred to hospitals on the brink of closure and the coverage gap created by the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid. “The fact is there is a sizable gap that exists for working Mississippians who cannot afford private health insurance, yet whose income is too much to qualify for Mississippi Medicaid. When these individuals need healthcare, hospitals are required to treat them regardless of their ability to pay … Such an economic strain on hospitals is one that even the most successful private business could not endure,” the MSMA opinion stated.