Mississippi Today
Few Mississippi lawmakers outright oppose Medicaid expansion
No Republican lawmaker in the Mississippi House or Senate voted in favor of Medicaid expansion when legislative Democrats forced votes on the issue during the recently completed 2023 session.
But those votes do not necessarily mean the state's Republican-controlled Legislature opposes opting into the policy that would provide health coverage for hundreds of thousands of poor, working Mississippians and revive rural hospitals that have been struggling to stay open.
Only a handful of lawmakers in both the House and Senate say they outright oppose Medicaid expansion, according to a Mississippi Today survey of legislators conducted during the 2023 legislative session.
Just 21 of the House members surveyed, or 18% of the House, said they outright opposed Medicaid expansion. And just 18 of the Senate members surveyed, or 38% of the Senate, said they outright opposed it.
In the House, 67 members — a voting majority — said they either supported Medicaid expansion or were undecided. Mississippi Today could not get answers from 32 representatives.
And in the Senate, 25 members — one vote shy of a voting majority — said they either supported Medicaid expansion or were undecided. Mississippi Today could not get answers from nine senators.
But among the lawmakers who said they opposed expansion or asked to be labeled as “undecided,” several went on to add that they were actually open to some version of expansion.
Several lawmakers who said they opposed expansion said they supported policies similar to those passed in states such as Arkansas, Kentucky or Indiana — all states that have passed versions of Medicaid expansion.
Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from DeSoto County who chairs the Senate Medicaid Committee, was among those. Other key legislative leaders fell in this camp.
“I am open to considering something like Indiana has done,” said Rep. Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, after asking to be labeled “undecided.”
“I'm against it other than I would consider something like in Kentucky or Indiana, where everyone's got skin in the game,” said Rep. Kevin Horan, a Republican from Grenada who asked to be labeled “no.”
Mississippi is one of just 10 states that have resisted Medicaid expansion. Economists say the policy would bring $1.5 billion in new revenue annually while creating jobs, helping bolster the budgets of struggling hospitals and providing up to 300,000 poor, working Mississippians with health coverage.
The years-long resistance to expansion has come most directly from Republican leaders — namely Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn — who have likened the policy to socialism. Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, has in the past indicated support for some version of expansion but hasn't earnestly pushed legislation since he was elected in 2020.
And as poor Mississippians struggle to afford basic health care and dozens of the state's rural hospitals struggle to keep their doors open, Mississippi voters appear resolutely behind expansion. An April poll from Mississippi Today/Siena College showed that 66% of Mississippians support Medicaid expansion. An earlier survey in January showed 80% of Mississippians favored expansion.
Several rank-and-file Republican lawmakers polled by Mississippi Today said they were open to expansion, and some shared they believed there was a greater willingness among Republicans to pass expansion than in previous years. All 57 Democratic lawmakers support expansion.
Still, there was no serious push by Republicans in the 2023 session to even debate expansion, let alone vote on it.
“I think people are a little more open-minded about it than they were,” said Rep. William Tracy Arnold, a Republican from Booneville who supports Medicaid expansion. “We have a substantial amount of revenue now. We have to help save our struggling hospitals, and this would not only be giving hospitals more funding, it would help the struggling, tax-paying citizen.”
“Years ago when I first ran, I was totally opposed to Medicaid expansion,” said Rep. Mark Tullos, a Republican from Raleigh. “But I've looked at it further, and looked at what Arkansas did, and I would support something similar to what Arkansas has, with coverage for low income working people. Being from rural Mississippi, hospitals play a large role in our community. For rural Mississippi we are going to have to do something.”
“I'm for giving the working people of Mississippi health coverage,” said Rep. Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany. “I'm for giving the working people health coverage. It would save lives. It would keep people working and prevent medical issues down the road.”
“I am for health insurance for our working people in Mississippi,” said Rep. Jerry Turner, a Republican from Baldwyn. “I'm for a program that would have everybody have skin in the game.”
Dozens of other Republicans asked to be marked as “undecided” in Mississippi Today's expansion database. Some of those indicated they were waiting on leadership to present some options, and others said they wouldn't speak to any theoretical policy change without first seeing a bill.
“We need to have the conversation,” said Sen. Bart Williams, a Republican from Starkville. “We have a hospital crisis and we need to listen to any and all ideas.”
“Without knowing what a bill looks like, it is hard to say. But we have to do something to help our rural hospitals,” said Rep. Jon Lancaster, a Republican from Houston. “But I am concerned about the federal strings.”
“We need to have discussions about it,” said Rep. Nick Bain, a Republican from Corinth. “There are good parts to it and not so good.”
“The devil is in the details, where the money is coming from,” said Sen. Walter Michel, a Republican from Ridgeland. “I do want to help the hospitals, but I would have to see the bill.”
Still, several Republicans remain firmly opposed to expansion. And many of those opposed declined to expound on why they are opposed.
But Rep. Dana Criswell, R-Olive Branch, said: “It's bad insurance, so there's no reason to keep expanding it.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1892
MAY 21, 1892
Crusading journalist Ida B. Wells published a column exposing the lynchings of African-American men and denouncing claims that the lynchings were meant to protect white women.
Her anti-lynching campaign came after a mob killed three of her friends, who had reportedly opened a grocery store that competed with a white-owned store in Memphis.
Upset by Wells' writings, a white mob destroyed her presses and threatened to kill her if she ever published again. She left Memphis for Chicago, but she continued to expose lynchings, calling for national legislation to make lynching a crime.
In 1898, she took her protest to the White House.
“Nowhere in the civilized world save the United States of America do men, possessing all civil and political power, go out in bands of 50 and 5,000 to hunt down, shoot, hang or burn to death a single individual, unarmed and absolutely powerless,” she wrote. “We refuse to believe this country, so powerful to defend its citizens abroad, is unable to protect its citizens at home.”
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, which opened in 2018, features a reflection space in honor of her.
Congress finally passed an anti-lyncing law in the 2021-22 session. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act defines lynching as a federal hate crime.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1961
MAY 20, 1961
A white mob of more than 300, including Klansmen, attacked Freedom Riders at the Greyhound Bus Station in Montgomery, Alabama. Future Congressman John Lewis was among them.
“An angry mob came out of nowhere, hundreds of people, with bricks and balls, chains,” Lewis recalled.
After beating on the riders, the mob turned on reporters and then Justice Department official John Seigenthaler, who was beaten unconscious and left in the street after helping two riders.
“Then they turned on my colleagues and started beating us and beat us so severely, we were left bloodied and unconscious in the streets of Montgomery,” Lewis recalled.
As the mob headed his way, Freedom Rider James Zwerg said he asked for God to be with him, and “I felt absolutely surrounded by love. I knew that whether I lived or died, I was going to be OK.”
The mob beat him so badly that his suit was soaked in blood.
“There was nothing particularly heroic in what I did,” he said. “If you want to talk about heroism, consider the Black man who probably saved my life. This man in coveralls, just off of work, happened to walk by as my beating was going on and said ‘Stop beating that kid. If you want to beat someone, beat me.' And they did. He was still unconscious when I left the hospital.”
To quell the violence, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent in 450 federal marshals.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Podcast: The controversial day that Robert Kennedy came to the University of Mississippi
Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington talks with Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender about former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy's speech at the University of Mississippi less than four years after the riots that occurred after the integration of the school. Ellington, who at the time headed the Ole Miss Speaker's Bureau as a law school student, recalls the controversy leading up to the speech.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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