Senate leaders did not attend a second conference committee meeting with their House counterparts on Thursday to try and compromise on a final bill to expand Medicaid coverage to poor Mississippians. 

House Medicaid Chairwoman Missy McGee, a Republican from Hattiesburg, said she was disappointed the three Senate negotiators didn't attend the meeting because she expected to hear an update on where the chamber stood on reaching a compromise.

“Those of you who are looking for information, so are we,” McGee said. “Just know the House stands ready to negotiate this very important issue. We are here at the Capitol, and we're hoping that we'll be able to have some conversations later today and later and in the final days of the session. Thank you for coming and sorry to have wasted your time.” 

Senate Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven who is one of the Senate negotiators, did not answer questions from reporters about the conference committee as he walked out of a separate Senate committee meeting. But he said the Senate was “working on a compromise.” 

After the meeting, McGee told reporters she notified Blackwell on Wednesday that she was scheduling the second conference meeting for Thursday, but she was not sure if the senators would attend or not. 

“I was hoping we were able to meet again, even if it was briefly,” McGee said. “I didn't hear anything from the Senate yesterday, so I was hoping we would be able to discuss today.” 

The House and Senate are in negotiations on a final expansion bill because the two chambers earlier in the session passed vastly different proposals. 

The House's initial plan aimed to expand health care coverage to upwards of 200,000 Mississippians, and accept $1 billion a year in federal money to cover it, as most other states have done.

The Senate, on the other hand, wanted a more restrictive program, to expand Medicaid to cover around 40,000 people, turn down the federal money, and require proof that recipients are working at least 30 hours a week. 

The negotiators met publicly for the first time on Tuesday, but the six lawmakers remained far apart from a final deal. 

The Senate simply asked the House to agree to its initial plan. But the House offered a compromise “hybrid” model that uses public and private insurance options to implement expansion. The Senate negotiators on Tuesday were mostly noncommittal on the hybrid compromise.

House leaders, such as Republican Rep. Sam Creekmore IV of New Albany, have said they are willing to compromise on a final plan with the Senate, but they want an agreement that covers people up to 138% of the federal poverty level to receive the full 90% matching rate from the federal government.

“Here we are with a chance to receive 90 cents on the dollar if we give 10 cents, and that's it,” Creekmore said. “I don't know of a business who would not take that. Yet we're going to turn that down? On the House side, we're not willing to turn that down.” 

Lawmakers face a Monday deadline to file an initial compromise plan on Medicaid expansion, though that deadline could be suspended if two-thirds of the legislators in both chambers agree to suspend the deadline. 

House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, told reporters he wished the Senate negotiators would have attended the Thursday meeting, but he's still optimistic the two chambers can agree on a final deal.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Boxing in sanctioned matches in a ring donated by rapper Jay-Z. Throwing and catching a football in the yard. Facing off in table tennis matches.  

Sports teams have come to Missisisppi's prison system, giving incarcerated people a creative way to stay active, change attitudes, build sportsmanship and help in their rehabilitation, corrections officials said. 

“We encourage our inmates to be involved in sports activities as it battles idleness in prison. We have created many different teams to allow them to get out of their dorms and participate in being active”, Commissioner Burl Cain said in a Wednesday news release. 

Research has found that prison sports programs have social, mental and physical benefits, and participation in sports can help lessen detrimental health impacts people experience through incarceration. 

But the bipartisan chairs of the Legislature's corrections committees are questioning why incarcerated people have been allowed to participate in boxing, which they say could create a violent environment and put the state on the hook for the boxers' medical care if they are injured.

House Corrections Chair Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, and Senate Corrections Chair Juan Barnett, D-Heidelberg, said there are better uses of MDOC's budget than a sport as harmful as boxing. 

They would rather see the department focus on a number of other efforts, including drug and alcohol treatment, job training and housing placements to prepare people to leave prison and not return.

“We have to make sure we're not teaching them to box,” said Currie, who is serving her first session as chair of the committee. “… This is not where we need to spend our time and our money.”

Barnett said incarcerated people should have access to recreation and time out in the yard, and he sees how supporters can see rehabilitative value in boxing and other sports teams. But those are less of a priority compared to MDOC's main role: to correct people, he said.

Boxing programs exist around the country in state and federal prisons, including in Louisiana. 

The Angola State Penitentiary, where Cain served as warden, has a team. Henry Montgomery, who founded the program as an inmate, helped form the boxing teams there. Montgomery was released from prison in 2021 at the age of 75. His case led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that all states were required to retroactively apply the ban on mandatory death-in-prison sentences for juveniles that it announced in its earlier Miller v. Alabama ruling. 

In the news release, MDOC said the boxing team members are required to take drug tests and have a pre-match physical. 

During the matches, medical staff and ringside trainers are present along with referees, timekeepers and official judges. Mississippi Athletic Commission Chairman Randy Phillips has helped with boxing training and is ensuring that MDOC's safety equipment meets standards, according to the news release. 

Parchman's first boxing match was in November against incarcerated boxers who traveled to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, according to MDOC. Creation of a boxing program at CMCF has been cited as a reason why the women were relocated from the 1A-Yard to unit 720 in 2022. 

A pamphlet shared with Mississippi Today showcases a March 28 “Fight for the Title” event hosted at Parchman. Listed were the 22 members of the boxing team, 14 of whom fought in matches that day. 

Tangya Allen-Elliott attended both boxing events to support her nephew, Carlos Allen, who coaches the boxing team. She said the March event had a good atmosphere and the matches seemed professional and safe. 

Allen, 35, was appointed as the boxing team coach because of his leadership, Allen-Elliott said. Prior to incarceration, he played sports, refereed and coached. 

He has been in the state prison system for three years and at Parchman for over a year, his aunt said. Allen was sentenced to over 100 years for drug trafficking, sale of fentanyl and possession of other drugs. Additionally, he was sentenced as a habitual offender, meaning he is not eligible for parole.

Being part of the boxing team has helped her nephew have a positive impact on others and mentor younger men – all of which give him hope in prison. 

She said the sport is a great opportunity for the men, and she hopes it can serve as a guide for other states, such as Alabama, where she lives.

“They're on the right track,” Allen-Elliot said about boxing in Mississippi prisons. 

“I had never seen a prison do something to this impact.” 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

As clergy, physicians and business leaders have for weeks rallied at the state Capitol to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor, observers can often spot the same conservative lawmaker listening attentively on the sidelines. 

Sen. Chad McMahan, a Republican from Guntown, hasn't attended the events as a participant, a supporter or an opponent of the rallies. Rather, he goes because he wants to listen to the debate or because his constituents are there. 

In fact, McMahan has been a quiet, yet constant supporter of Medicaid expansion, or Medicaid reform as he calls it. He believes the policy can give rural hospitals like North Mississippi Medical Center in his hometown of Tupelo a major boost and create a healthier population. 

The three-term lawmaker is widely known for telling reporters that his main duty at the Capitol is to vote how the majority of the people in his district want him to vote. But he also openly shares his childhood story that he believes gives him a unique perspective on how steep medical debt can crush hard-working Mississippians. 

When McMahan was in the ninth grade, he suffered an injury and had to be treated at the local emergency room. When the $20,000 bill came due for the medical services, though, there was a major snag: McMahan's family had no health insurance. 

“That doesn't sound like a lot of money today, but in 1986, $20,000 would buy two top-of-the-line Chevrolet pickups,” McMahan said. “Today, it won't even buy a piece of a Chevrolet pickup truck.” 

The legislator's father owned a cabinet-making business in north Mississippi, and his mother did clerical work. But the medical debt forced them to make tough decisions that thousands of Mississippians still face today. 

It was impossible for the McMahan family to pay the bill in one swoop. Instead, they set up a payment plan with the hospital to pay the bill off over several years. 

“It put a lot of stress and anxiety on my family,” McMahan recalled. “I saw my mom and dad having to decide at the dinner table whether they were going to pay a mortgage, buy groceries or pay the hospital bill that month.” 

READ MORE: Medicaid expansion negotiators still far apart after first public meeting

Roughly 74,000 Mississippians don't make enough money to afford insurance, yet make too much money to qualify for Medicaid and find themselves in positions similar to the one the McMahan family was in decades ago.

But the state Legislature has a chance this year to address this issue because for the first time since the federal Affordable Care Act became law, it's considering expanding Medicaid to the working poor as the ACA envisioned. 

The House and Senate this week are locked in negotiations on a final expansion bill after the two chambers passed vastly different proposals. 

The House's initial plan aimed to expand health care coverage to upwards of 200,000 Mississippians, and accept $1 billion a year in federal money to cover it, as most other states have done.

The Senate, on the other hand, wanted a more restrictive program, to expand Medicaid to cover around 40,000 people, turn down the federal money, and require proof that recipients are working at least 30 hours a week. 

The negotiators met publicly for the first time on Tuesday, but the six lawmakers remained far apart from a final deal. The Senate simply asked the House to agree to its initial plan. But the House offered a compromise “hybrid” model that uses public and private options to implement expansion. 

McMahan said he personally supports the House's effort to expand to the full 138% of the federal poverty level, or an individual who makes $20,782 annually. But he also supports the Senate's effort to have an ironclad work requirement for the recipients. 

While McMahan has compassion for uninsured people he doesn't think fiscally conservative Republicans should agree to expansion legislation that leaves out a work requirement or sets up a process for people to remain on the system indefinitely. 

“I'm proud that I live in a country where there is a safety net to catch people and help people, but I'm not for turning the safety net into a hammock,” McMahan said. 

The Senate negotiators were noncommittal on the hybrid compromise. House Medicaid Chairwoman Missy McGee scheduled a second conference committee meeting for Thursday afternoon. 

McMahan applauded the House and Senate leaders for trying to come to a resolution on expansion, especially after the policy has been a nonstarter for the last 10 years at the Capitol.

He doesn't think it's his job to convince his Senate colleagues to change their minds. But he does want people who remain unabashedly opposed to the policy to listen to the stories of people across the state who still can't afford basic health care. 

“I see the people who are out there,” McMahan said. “A lot of construction workers, a lot of fast food employees. I see the people who are working every day getting up and going to work who have never taken a hand out in life for anything who are not covered by health insurance.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.