JACKSON, Mississippi — Mississippi is one step closer to a landmark shift in health care policy, with the Republican-led House of Representatives voting to cut Medicaid benefits for hundreds of thousands more residents in one of Mississippi’s poorest states. Preparations are underway to discuss expansion.we
The House Medicaid Committee advanced a bill Tuesday that would increase eligibility for Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people. The proposal would target people with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or $20,120 per person per year. This measure could expand the number of people eligible for benefits to approximately 250,000 people.
“Our health metrics are improving, we have greater access to health care, and we are creating a healthier Mississippi where people can get treatment sooner rather than later,” said Republican Missy McGee, the committee chair. I hope we start to see it.”
Mississippi has the highest preventable death rate in the country, and the state’s top health official said the state ranks at the bottom of virtually every health metric and at the top of every disparity measure. Hospitals are struggling to stay open. The state also has one of the lowest labor force participation rates in the nation. Expansion supporters say the policy could help improve that situation.
The move follows longstanding Republican opposition to the expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 federal health care overhaul signed by then-President Barack Obama. Opponents of Medicaid expansion argue that the program fosters dependence on government, increases wait times for health care services and turns people away from private insurance.
Mississippi legislative Republicans had never held a public hearing to consider Medicaid expansion until this year. On Tuesday, the debate stalled over opposition from party leaders, including Gov. Tate Reeves, who reiterated his position that the government “shouldn’t be running health care.” But new House Speaker Jason White, a Republican who co-sponsored the Medicaid expansion bill with McGee, said he wants lawmakers to consider the policy as a way to bring hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to states each year.
Mr. McGee touted the financial incentives for Medicaid expansion provided by Congress in the American Rescue Plan. This bonus helped pass Medicaid expansion in North Carolina. In Mississippi, incentives and other cost offsets, such as increased tax revenue, would cover the cost of the program for about four years, McGee said.
“It will pay for itself,” McGee said. “You have to think of this as the federal government giving us a free testing program to run for four years.”
Legislative Democrats on the committee have competing proposals moving forward, but all voted in favor of the Republican-backed version on Tuesday. House members have until March 14 to pass the bill.
At the heart of the debate is a provision that would require workers to work at least 20 hours a week to qualify for expanded benefits. Of the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid, only Georgia has succeeded in tying a work requirement to a partial expansion of benefits.
The Trump administration has allowed 13 states to impose work requirements on some Medicaid recipients. The Biden administration subsequently rescinded all of those exemptions in 2021, arguing that people should not face obstacles to receiving health care. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration won a federal court battle in 2022 to temporarily keep Georgia’s plan in place, but the legal battle continues.
Mississippi Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hoseman, who will play a key role in passing the Medicaid expansion bill through the state Senate, said Georgia is a model for Mississippi.
However, the Biden administration is likely to refuse to grant waivers to Medicaid expansion that include work requirements. If that happens, Mississippi could sue the federal government or adopt an expansion without work requirements.
McGee said the state Medicaid department will do its best to negotiate with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that must approve work requirement waivers.
“The goal of this plan is to provide health insurance to working people in Mississippi. We believe that at least 75 to 80 percent of this population is working. So we may be able to We never want to not help them because we don’t have it,” McGee said. You’re helping other people who may not be working or able to work at the time. ”
At an event in Jackson on Monday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra called on lawmakers to take advantage of federal programs.
“You have to step up your state’s efforts until your state finally takes care of the whole family,” Becerra said.
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Associated Press writer Debna Bose contributed to this report. Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
