Mississippi Today

Inside Mississippi’s coverage gap, workers say health care is a ‘pipe dream’ or ‘whimsical idea’

Published

1 year ago

March 14, 2024

When Brandon Allred woke up in the hospital after suffering heat stroke and a series of seizures at work, all he could think about was how much it was going to cost.

It was a legitimate concern: Seven years later, he’s still paying off the medical debt.

“It’s not just anxiety,” the 35-year-old father said, “but also the conscious, embarrassing fact that I’m living in one of the richest countries in the world and I am a natural born citizen and I have to sit here day by day and think ‘I dream of healthcare.’ I dream of a day where I can get all my teeth fixed and not have to worry about that. Or maybe I can figure out what was going on with me with those seizures.”

Allred, a prep cook and the primary provider for his six young daughters, works full-time but falls into Mississippi’s coverage gap, where he says health care is but a “pipe dream” and a “whimsical idea.”

Brandon Allred, 35-year-old father of six, works full-time but falls into Mississippi’s coverage gap. He is still paying off medical debt from a hospital visit seven years ago. Photo: Courtesy of Brandon Allred

The coverage gap is made up of low-income workers who make more than 28% of the federal poverty level — the maximum income allowed to currently qualify for Medicaid in the state — but less than the 100% of the federal poverty level needed to get subsidies that would make private insurance plans affordable. And it’s surprisingly big, comprising roughly 74,000 Mississippians, according to a recent KFF study.

If Medicaid were expanded in Mississippi – one of only 10 states that has not done so – Allred and tens of thousands of other working Mississippians like him would be covered. Income-eligible adults without children would also be covered.

It’s estimated that 123,000 uninsured Mississippians would gain coverage under expansion – that includes the 74,000 people under the poverty level and an additional 49,000 uninsured adults whose income is between 100% and 138% of the FPL. That means that under expansion, a family of four could make up to $43,056 and qualify for Medicaid.

Critics of expansion argue that anyone, even if they’re not offered health insurance through their employer, can purchase it through the marketplace. Those plans exist, but are so expensive that for those in the coverage gap, they practically do not exist.

Other critics of expansion argue that because there is a chance that some privately-insured Mississippians would switch to Medicaid under expansion, that’s reason to keep the 123,000 uninsured Mississippians uninsured — and turn down at least $1 billion a year in federal money to cover most of the cost.

Private insurance plans, especially ones with low premiums, have high deductibles that can easily run $5,000 a year. A plan with a deductible on the higher end of that spectrum would equate to about $400 a month – on top of premiums and copays – that an individual would need to pay in order for insurance companies to start picking up the slack.

A majority of uninsured adults make slightly too much to qualify for Medicaid under the present eligibility criteria, and so have no path toward health care.

As it stands, Medicaid eligibility for adults in Mississippi is very limited.

Firstly, Medicaid in Mississippi doesn’t currently cover childless adults – period. And even adults who have children would need to be making less than 28% of the federal poverty level to be eligible for Medicaid. For a family of two, such as a single mother and her child, 28% of the federal poverty level would be about $5,700 a year, or $475 a month.

That means that a working mother making incrementally more, such as 29% of the federal poverty level, would not qualify for Medicaid but would have to use nearly her entire salary if she were to pay out of pocket for a private insurance plan through the marketplace. This is an obvious impossibility for someone paying for rent and food and other basic necessities.

Nobody knows that better than Lakeisha Preston, a single working mother who couldn’t afford the deductibles on her insurance plan, and therefore was stuck paying out of pocket for a bout of pneumonia that put her in the hospital in 2019.

Over four years later she’s still paying off that medical bill – which forced her to move back in with her parents and take out personal loans.

“I had health insurance, it’s just that the deductibles were so high,” Preston explained. “I don’t go to the doctor all the time, and of course you have to meet the deductible first before the insurance covers you. So I was in that predicament.”

Ironically, Preston works at a federal Medicaid call center. She helps thousands of people, with incomes similar to hers, enroll in Medicaid in states with Medicaid expansion. As a Mississippian, she cannot get that coverage.

Preston said: “As a call center worker, I expect more from the state of Mississippi.”

Mississippi lawmakers have debated the need for expansion — mostly over partisan political reasons — for over a decade, despite the state’s abysmal public health metrics and pleas from doctors, hospital leaders and other health providers.

On Thursday, the deadline day for bills to pass their original chambers, Care4Mississippi, a coalition of 36 organizations whose goal is health care for all Mississippians, held a press conference at the Capitol. Doctors and health officials shared experiences from the frontline and urged lawmakers to pass expansion bills.

“As a pediatrician, I have seen firsthand the impact of parents’ health on their children,” Dr. Anita Henderson said during the press conference. “Children need their parents, and their parents need to act healthy, mentally, physically, and able to engage with their children. I have seen patients whose parents worked, sometimes two jobs, and lacked health insurance … The men and women in Mississippi are living almost a decade less than the people of Hawaii.”

Dr. Anita Henderson speaks to the media about Medicaid expansion during a press conference at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, March 14, 2024. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

This is the first year since Medicaid expansion was offered to states under the Affordable Care Act in 2014 that Mississippi Republican legislative leadership is considering it seriously. A House Republican bill overwhelmingly passed the full House and now sits in the Senate – which just killed its own expansion bill, according to Medicaid Chair Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven.

But Allred said that after a decade, lawmakers aren’t moving fast enough or treating the situation for the health care crisis that it is.

“If there was a state that needed to have a red flag pinned on it to say ‘you have a medical emergency to take care of,’ it would be Mississippi,” he said. “And we need a rethinking of what health care is for our citizens in the state.”

Allred saw his father lose all his money as he battled cancer in the last six months of his life – despite the fact he’d worked hard at one company for 30 years. Growing up, his mother warned him not to let a medical debt go to collections, and said it always felt like “the medical industry was there to be feared.”

The father of six said he hopes that by the time his daughters are grown, they won’t have to choose between paying rent or paying a medical bill. Right now, his children are covered by Medicaid. But he worries if legislation isn’t passed, they’ll be in the same predicament he’s in once they turn 18.

“I don’t want them to follow in the same footsteps as me when they shouldn’t have to,” Allred reflected. “When they’re being told their whole life they’re being raised in the greatest country in the world but they’re also being told the greatest country in the world can not take care of you.”

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

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Mississippi Today

Judge: Felony disenfranchisement a factor in ruling on Mississippi Supreme Court districts

Published

2 days ago

August 27, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-08-27 05:00:00

by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
August 27, 2025

The large number of Mississippians with voting rights stripped for life because they committed a disenfranchising felony was a significant factor in a federal judge determining that current state Supreme Court districts dilute Black voting strength.

U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock, who was appointed to the federal bench by George W. Bush, last week ruled that Mississippi’s Supreme Court districts violate the federal Voting Rights Act and that the state cannot use the same maps in future elections.

Mississippi law establishes three Supreme Court districts, commonly referred to as the northern, central and southern districts. Voters elect three judges from each to the nine-member court. These districts have not been redrawn since 1987.

The main district at issue in the case is the central district, which comprises many parts of the majority-Black Delta and the majority-Black Jackson Metro Area.

Several civil rights legal organizations filed a lawsuit on behalf of Black citizens, candidates, and elected officials, arguing that the central district does not provide Black voters with a realistic chance to elect a candidate of their choice.

The state defended the districts arguing the map allows a fair chance for Black candidates. Aycock sided with the plaintiffs and is allowing the Legislature to redraw the districts.

The attorney general’s office could appeal the ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. A spokesperson for the office stated that the office is reviewing Aycock’s decision, but did not confirm whether the office plans to appeal.

In her ruling, Aycock cited the testimony of William Cooper, the plaintiff’s demographic and redistricting expert, who estimated that 56,000 felons were unable to vote statewide based on a review of court records from 1994 to 2017. He estimated 60% of those were determined to be Black Mississippians.

Cooper testified that the high number of people who were disenfranchised contributed to the Black voting age population falling below 50% in the central district.

Attorneys from Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office defended the state. They disputed Cooper’s calculations, but Aycock rejected their arguments.

The AG’s office also said Aycock should not put much weight on the number of disenfranchised people because the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled that Mississippi’s disenfranchisement system doesn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Aycock, however, distinguished between the appellate court’s ruling that the system did not have racial discriminatory intent and the current issue of the practice having a racially discriminatory impact.

“Notably, though, that decision addressed only whether there was discriminatory intent as required to prove an Equal Protection claim,” Aycock wrote. “The Fifth Circuit did not conclude that Mississippi’s felon disenfranchisement laws have no racially disparate impact.”

Mississippi has one of the harshest disenfranchisement systems in the nation and a convoluted method for restoring voting rights to people.

Other than receiving a pardon from the governor, the only way for someone to regain their voting rights is if two-thirds of legislators from both chambers at the Capitol, the highest threshold in the Legislature, agree to restore their suffrage.

Lawmakers only consider about a dozen or so suffrage restoration bills during the session, and they’re typically among the last items lawmakers take up before they adjourn for the year.

Under the Mississippi Constitution, people convicted of a list of 10 types of felonies lose their voting rights for life. Opinions from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office have since expanded the list of specific disenfranchising felonies to 23.

The practice of stripping voting rights away from people for life is a holdover from the Jim Crow era. The framers of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution believed Black people were most likely to commit certain crimes.

Leaders in the state House have attempted to overhaul the system, but none have gained any significant traction in both chambers at the Capitol.

Last year, House Constitution Chairman Price Wallace, a Republican from Mendenhall, advocated a constitutional amendment that would have removed nonviolent offenses from the list of disenfranchising felonies, but he never brought it up for a vote in the House.

Wallace and House Elections Chairman Noah Sanford, a Republican from Collins, are leading a study committee on Sept. 11 to explore reforms to the felony suffrage system and other voting legislation.

Wallace previously said on an episode of Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast that he believes the state should tackle the issue because one of his core values, part of his upbringing, is giving people a second chance, especially once they’ve made up for a mistake.

“This issue is not a Republican or Democratic issue,” Wallace said. “It allows a woman or a man, whatever the case may be, the opportunity to have their voice heard in their local elections. Like I said, they’re out there working. They’re paying taxes just like you and me. And yet they can’t have a decision in who represents them in their local government.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Judge: Felony disenfranchisement a factor in ruling on Mississippi Supreme Court districts appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents a focus on voting rights and racial justice issues, highlighting the impact of felony disenfranchisement on Black voters in Mississippi. It emphasizes civil rights concerns and critiques longstanding policies rooted in the Jim Crow era, which aligns with center-left perspectives advocating for expanded voting access and systemic reform. The coverage is factual and includes viewpoints from multiple sides, but the framing and emphasis on racial disparities and voting rights restoration suggest a center-left leaning.

Mississippi Today

Jackson police chief steps down to take another job, national search to come

Published

2 days ago

August 26, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @mintamolly – 2025-08-26 12:39:00

by Molly Minta, Mississippi Today
August 26, 2025

Jackson Police Department Chief Joseph Wade told the mayor last week he was choosing to retire after 29 years of service and two years at the helm of the force. Wade said he’d been given another job opportunity, which has yet to be announced.

His last day is Sept. 5.

Mayor John Horhn said he told Wade the officer would be crazy not to take the job — one that comes with less stress and more pay.

“His wife has been on his back, his blood pressure has been up,” Horhn said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “He has done a commendable job.”

Wade became chief during a period in which Jackson was called the murder capital of America. Under his tenure, Wade said crime has fallen markedly, including a roughly 45% reduction in homicides so far this year compared to the same period in 2024, the Clarion Ledger reported. He said he’s also increased JPD’s force by 37, for a total of 258 officers.

Wade said his biggest accomplishment is reestablishing trust. “We are no longer the laughing stock of the law enforcement community,” he said.

The chief’s departure comes less than two months after Horhn took office, replacing former Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba who originally appointed Wade, and on the heels of a spate of shootings that Wade said were driven by gangs of young men.

“I have received so many calls from the community: ‘Chief, please don’t leave us,'” Wade told the crowd in council chambers.

But Wade said he “would rather leave prematurely than overstay my welcome,” adding that the average tenure of a police chief is 2.5 years.

Wade said that last year he stood next to Jackson Councilman Kenny Stokes and told the media he was going to cut crime in half, “And what did I do? Cut it in half,” he said.

“What I’ve seen in our community in some situations is people want police, but they don’t want to be policed,” Wade said.

Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones will serve as interim police chief until the administration finds a replacement. Jones said he has not finalized a contract with the city, responding to a question about whether he will draw a salary from both agencies.

“I could think of no one better than the sheriff of Hinds County,” Horhn said, adding that the appointment is temporary.

Jones said during the meeting that his responsibility as sheriff will continue uninterrupted and that his goal within JPD is to ensure continued professionalism in the department.

“I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my dear friend and retired police chief Joe Wade,” Jones said. “Again, let me be clear, I have no aspirations to permanently hold the position.”

Horhn said there is precedence for the dual role that “Chief Sheriff Jones is about to embark upon,” citing former mayor Frank Melton’s hiring of Sheriff Malcolm McMillin.

The city has enlisted help from former U.S. Marshal George White and the former chief of the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Col. Charles Haynes, to lead the Law Enforcement Task Force that will conduct a nationwide search to fill the position. The administration expects that to take between 30 and 60 days, according to a city press release.

The release said the task force will also examine safety challenges in Jackson more broadly, such as youth crime, drug crimes, departmental needs and interagency coordination.

“I am grateful that Marshal White and Col. Haynes have agreed to lead this important effort. Their breadth of experience, commitment to public safety and deep understanding of law enforcement challenges will ensure the task force conducts a rigorous search for our next chief,” said Horhn. “I am confident they will help shape solutions that address the evolving needs of Jackson.”

The city said it would soon release details about the opportunity for the public to offer input on the process.

“Hinds County is all in for whatever we have to do to make Jackson and Hinds County the safest it can be,” Hinds County Supervisors President Robert Graham said during the meeting.

Wade, who hails from nearby Terry, graduated from JPD’s 23rd recruit class in 1995, rising from a police recruit and hitting every rung of the ladder on his way to chief. “I was homegrown,” he said.

Wade said he received “an amazing offer in a private sector at an amazing organization. Don’t ask me where. That will be released at the appropriate time.”

This story may be updated.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Jackson police chief steps down to take another job, national search to come appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The article presents a straightforward news report on the resignation of a police chief, focusing on facts, quotes from officials, and crime statistics without evident ideological framing. It covers perspectives from multiple local government figures and avoids partisan language, reflecting a neutral, balanced tone typical of centrist reporting.

Mississippi Today

Bluesky blocks access in Mississippi, citing free speech and privacy concerns over state law

Published

3 days ago

August 25, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-08-25 12:15:00

by Michael Goldberg, Mississippi Today
August 25, 2025

Mississippians can no longer access the Bluesky app after the social media platform blocked access to users in the state.

Bluesky said on Friday that it made the decision after the U.S. Supreme Court declined for now to block a Mississippi state law that the platform said limits free expression, invades people’s privacy and unfairly targets smaller social media companies. The state law, passed in 2024, requires users of websites and other digital services to verify their age.

“The Supreme Court’s recent decision leaves us facing a hard reality: comply with Mississippi’s age assurance law—and make every Mississippi Bluesky user hand over sensitive personal information and undergo age checks to access the site—or risk massive fines,” the company wrote in a statement. “The law would also require us to identify and track which users are children, unlike our approach in other regions. We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms and emerging technologies.”

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, whose office defended the law, told the justices that age verification could help protect young people from “sexual abuse, trafficking, physical violence, sextortion and more,” activities that the First Amendment does not protect.

The age verification law added Mississippi to a list of Republican-led states where similar legal challenges are playing out.

NetChoice is challenging laws passed in Mississippi and other states that require social media users to verify their ages, and asked the Supreme Court to keep the measure on hold while a lawsuit plays out.

That came after a federal judge prevented the 2024 law from taking effect. But a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in July that the law could be enforced while the lawsuit proceeds.

On Aug. 14, the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from a tech industry group representing major platforms such as Facebook, X and YouTube.

There were no noted dissents from the brief, unsigned order. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that there’s a good chance NetChoice will eventually succeed in showing that the law is unconstitutional, but hadn’t shown it must be blocked while the lawsuit unfolds.

Bluesky grew after the 2024 presidential election. Many users of X, which is owned by Elon Musk, retreated from the platform in response to the billionaire’s strong support of Donald Trump.

In Bluesky’s statement explaining its decision to block access in Mississippi, the company said age verification systems “require substantial infrastructure and developer time investments, complex privacy protections, and ongoing compliance monitoring — costs that can easily overwhelm smaller providers.”

“This dynamic entrenches existing big tech platforms while stifling the innovation and competition that benefits users,” the company added.

Bluesky said it did follow other digital safety regulations, such as the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act. Under that statute, age checks are required only for accessing certain content and features, and Bluesky does not track which users are under 18, the platform said:

“Mississippi’s law, by contrast, would block everyone from accessing the site—teens and adults—unless they hand over sensitive information, and once they do, the law in Mississippi requires Bluesky to keep track of which users are children.”

The Mississippi law, authored by Rep. Jill Ford, a Republican from Madison, is called the “Walker Montgomery Protecting Children Online Act,” named after a Mississippi teen who reportedly committed suicide after an overseas online predator threatened to blackmail him.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Bluesky blocks access in Mississippi, citing free speech and privacy concerns over state law appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The content presents a perspective that emphasizes concerns about free speech, privacy, and the impact of government regulation on smaller tech companies, which aligns with a more progressive or liberal viewpoint on digital rights and corporate regulation. It critiques a Republican-led state law as potentially overreaching and harmful to innovation, while also acknowledging the law’s intent to protect children. The balanced presentation of both sides, with a slight emphasis on the tech platform’s viewpoint and civil liberties, suggests a center-left bias.