Mississippi Today
Gov. Roy Cooper, the most recent state leader to expand Medicaid, has advice for Mississippi lawmakers
No one more deeply understands the fraught politics of pushing Medicaid expansion in a red state than North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
When the Democrat moved to expand Medicaid in 2017, the state's legislative Republicans sued him in federal court to block him. Their years-long opposition to expansion, much like the sustained GOP blockade here in Mississippi, was rooted in little more than blind politics.
The expansion program, of course, runs through the Affordable Care Act, perhaps the biggest legacy of President Barack Obama. The all-too-familiar logic of North Carolina's Republicans in opposing Cooper's expansion effort: Obamacare is bad, Republican power is good.
Unsuccessful at first, Cooper got to work. He traveled his state to listen to constituents, and for years he led a coordinated pro-expansion effort. He pieced together a bipartisan coalition that became too powerful for the GOP lawmakers to ignore. Business leaders lobbied, health professionals pleaded, religious leaders prayed.
At long last, in 2023, North Carolina became the 40th and most recent state to expand Medicaid. An overwhelming majority of legislative Republicans — yes, even most of the loudest earlier opponents — ultimately voted yea.
“That was one of the greatest days of my life,” Cooper told me in an interview on Tuesday. “It was a day that changed so many lives, and the people of North Carolina are better off today for it in every way.”
Cooper has been following the high-profile debate of Medicaid expansion in the Mississippi Capitol this year. Here in Jackson, House Republicans overwhelmingly passed an expansion proposal on Feb. 29. But Senate Republicans are stalling and proposing their own plan — one that is so watered down and ineffectual that Mississippi wouldn't be considered an expansion state if it passes.
As major deadlines approach and the politics heat up, expansion in Mississippi is still far from reality.
The North Carolina governor said he noticed a recent tweet from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves using yet another one of those tired “Obama is bad” lines.
“It's really quite sad, isn't it?” Cooper asked me rhetorically.
READ MORE: Hospitals, business leaders suffering FOT — Fear of Tate — on Medicaid expansion
Truthfully, Mississippi Republicans have little reason to care what Cooper has to say. But before you write off his words, know this: Two different times, North Carolinians elected Cooper on the same ballot that Republican Donald Trump won. Let that sink in: A majority of North Carolina voters elected a Democratic governor while casting votes for Trump on the same ballot. He's clearly trusted and respected by many Republican voters in his state. Few politicians in America could claim that level of crossover support these days.
His popularity, many in the Tar Heel State believe, got Medicaid expanded and will provide health care coverage to an estimated 600,000 North Carolinians.
So when I got a few minutes with the political savant this week, I couldn't help but ask: What would he say to Mississippi lawmakers as they're considering expansion?
“Listen to your constituents instead of the partisan rhetoric,” Cooper responded. “You'll hear from small business owners that they're having a hard time affording health insurance for their employees. You'll hear from rural county commissioners and local government officials that their rural hospitals are in danger of closing. You'll hear from local law enforcement officers that they're spending a lot of time dealing with people who are mentally ill or have substance use disorder. If you listen to doctors and health care providers, they'll tell you they're having a difficult time treating indigent patients. And if you talk to people who are working hard, making a living and just can't afford health insurance, they'll tell you this is a great deal for Mississippi.”
Did you catch that? Cooper doesn't care if Mississippi lawmakers listen to him; he just wants them to listen to their constituents. Considering the vast support for expansion among Mississippi health care leaders, business leaders and voters of all party affiliations, that fundamental political concept has clearly been shelved here in recent weeks.
READ MORE: Senate Medicaid expansion plan shows generosity to the poor — but mostly in other states
North Carolina expansion went into effect in December 2023, so it's still early days. But what are the effects so far?
“Already we're seeing thousands of prescriptions being filled, so obviously there were a lot of people who were not getting the regular preventative drugs that they should have,” Cooper said, which one could easily take as a nod toward Mississippians being consistently ranked the unhealthiest populous in the nation.
He continued: “And look, this will help the private sector. It's one of the reasons we had a number of local chambers of commerce endorse Medicaid expansion. When you have indigent patients who get treated and providers can't recover the money, they go to the private sector. Studies have been overwhelming in showing that Medicaid expansion can help control private health care costs.”
There's logic in that answer that mirrors the numerous studies showing expansion in Mississippi would have similar effects. But in this Mississippi debate, logic has too often taken a backseat to pure, unadulterated politics. This is, perhaps, where we could use Cooper's unique perspective most.
So I ask: Many so-called conservatives in Mississippi are making this exclusively about politics, arguing simply that expansion is not conservative enough. Knowing what you know on the other side of this fight, what would you say to them?
“It saves people money, so it's conservative. It saves businesses money, so it's conservative. It saves lives, so it's conservative,” he said. “… It's been hard to find people in North Carolina who are against it after we passed it. And it was an overwhelming majority of legislators from both parties who supported this at the end of the day.”
Mississippi lawmakers can listen to Cooper or not. But the guy has been down the very road they find themselves on right now. And the stakes for so many Mississippians couldn't be higher.
READ MORE: Senate Republicans should know: This is literally life-or-death.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
2024 Mississippi legislative session not good for private school voucher supporters
Despite a recent Mississippi Supreme Court ruling allowing $10 million in public money to be spent on private schools, 2024 has not been a good year for those supporting school vouchers.
School-choice supporters were hopeful during the 2024 legislative session, with new House Speaker Jason White at times indicating support for vouchers.
But the Legislature, which recently completed its session, did not pass any new voucher bills. In fact, it placed tighter restrictions on some of the limited laws the state has in place allowing public money to be spent on private schools.
Notably, the Legislature passed a bill that provides significantly more oversight of a program that provides a limited number of scholarships or vouchers for special-needs children to attend private schools.
Going forward, thanks to the new law, to receive the vouchers a parent must certify that their child will be attending a private school that offers the special needs educational services that will help the child. And the school must report information on the academic progress of the child receiving the funds.
Also, efforts to expand another state program that provides tax credits for the benefit of private schools was defeated. Legislation that would have expanded the tax credits offered by the Children's Promise Act from $8 million a year to $24 million to benefit private schools was defeated. Private schools are supposed to educate low income students and students with special needs to receive the benefit of the tax credits. The legislation expanding the Children's Promise Act was defeated after it was reported that no state agency knew how many students who fit into the categories of poverty and other specific needs were being educated in the schools receiving funds through the tax credits.
Interestingly, the Legislature did not expand the Children's Promise Act but also did not place more oversight on the private schools receiving the tax credit funds.
The bright spot for those supporting vouchers was the early May state Supreme Court ruling. But, in reality, the Supreme Court ruling was not as good for supporters of vouchers as it might appear on the surface.
The Supreme Court did not say in the ruling whether school vouchers are constitutional. Instead, the state's highest court ruled that the group that brought the lawsuit – Parents for Public Schools – did not have standing to pursue the legal action.
The Supreme Court justices did not give any indication that they were ready to say they were going to ignore the Mississippi Constitution's plain language that prohibits public funds from being provided “to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school.”
In addition to finding Parents for Public Schools did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, the court said another key reason for its ruling was the fact that the funds the private schools were receiving were federal, not state funds. The public funds at the center of the lawsuit were federal COVID-19 relief dollars.
Right or wrong, The court appeared to make a distinction between federal money and state general funds. And in reality, the circumstances are unique in that seldom does the state receive federal money with so few strings attached that it can be awarded to private schools.
The majority opinion written by Northern District Supreme Justice Robert Chamberlin and joined by six justices states, “These specific federal funds were never earmarked by either the federal government or the state for educational purposes, have not been commingled with state education funds, are not for educational purposes and therefore cannot be said to have harmed PPS (Parents for Public Schools) by taking finite government educational funding away from public schools.”
And Southern District Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, who joined the majority opinion, wrote separately “ to reiterate that we are not ruling on state funds but American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds … The ARPA funds were given to the state to be used in four possible ways, three of which were directly related to the COVID -19 health emergency and one of which was to make necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.”
Granted, many public school advocates lamented the decision, pointing out that federal funds are indeed public or taxpayer money and those federal funds could have been used to help struggling public schools.
Two justices – James Kitchens and Leslie King, both of the Central District, agreed with that argument.
But, importantly, a decidedly conservative-leaning Mississippi Supreme Court stopped far short – at least for the time being – of circumventing state constitutional language that plainly states that public funds are not to go to private schools.
And a decidedly conservative Mississippi Legislature chose not to expand voucher programs during the 2024 session.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1925
MAY 19, 1925
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. When he was 14, a teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he answered that he wanted to be a lawyer. The teacher chided him, urging him to be realistic. “Why don't you plan on carpentry?”
In prison, he became a follower of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. In his speeches, Malcolm X warned Black Americans against self-loathing: “Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind?”
Prior to a 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca, he split with Elijah Muhammad. As a result of that trip, Malcolm X began to accept followers of all races. In 1965, he was assassinated. Denzel Washington was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of the civil rights leader in Spike Lee's 1992 award-winning film.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=359877
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1896
MAY 18, 1896
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-1 in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation on railroads or similar public places was constitutional, forging the “separate but equal” doctrine that remained in place until 1954.
In his dissent that would foreshadow the ruling six decades later in Brown v. Board of Education, Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote that “separate but equal” rail cars were aimed at discriminating against Black Americans.
“In the view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens,” he wrote. “Our Constitution in color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law … takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=359301
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