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Mississippi Today

‘It is a moral obligation’: Faith leaders, advocates, doctors cite Christianity as reason to expand Medicaid

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2 years ago

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It felt more like church than a health summit at moments inside Duling Hall on Thursday.

The Better Health Summit, hosted by the poverty-focused nonprofit Together for Hope and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, brought together faith leaders, medical experts and health care advocates in Fondren for one common cause: improving health care in Mississippi by expanding Medicaid.

Summit attendees, no matter their backgrounds, echoed versions of the same question: Why haven’t political leaders, in a majority-Christian state, seen Medicaid expansion as an issue of morality?

Though panels at the summit ranged from accessing community-based health care to retaining physicians in rural Mississippi, speakers framed the issues around Medicaid expansion, and how far the policy measure would go to improve the livelihoods of working-class Mississippians.

Dr. Daniel Jones, former president of the American Heart Association, former chancellor of the University of Mississippi, and dean and professor emeritus at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, speaks during the Better Health Summit event at Duling Hall in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Dr. Dan Jones, the former president of the American Heart Association and former chancellor of the University of Mississippi and dean and professor emeritus at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, spoke freely at the summit, finally without his ties to state institutions, he said.

He told stories from his stints in Iran, North Korea and South Korea as a medical missionary, and how it compared to the care he was able to provide under Mississippi’s health care system.

While abroad, when Jones diagnosed people with hypertension and diabetes, he knew they were going to be able to access long-term care and medications, he said.

In Mississippi, Jones had to tell a patient he’d need to get his leg amputated. The man, a logger, knew he’d had diabetes for three years but was unable to access health care because he couldn’t afford health insurance.

After the amputation, the logger, as a disabled person, finally became eligible for health insurance through Medicaid.

“In our country, you had to lose a leg before he had access to health care,” he said. “When I went home that night after seeing that patient, I was so frustrated … I said, ‘What an insane world we live in. Today, I told a man he was going to lose his leg for a condition that was absolutely 100% preventable. And it was our country, our state, who let him down and allowed that to happen to him.’”

He drew a contrast between those countries — where health care is generally considered a right, not a privilege — and Mississippi, a state where most of its residents are Christians, yet it took an amputation to get someone insured.

“It’s easy to think living where… people don’t have reasonable access to health care is okay, because it’s just the way it is,” he said. “It’s not.”

Jones echoed his faith and how he sees Medicaid expansion as a spiritual issue.

“I hope when I stand in the booth a few days from now that my first priority will not be what is going to be the economic impact on my family when I cast this vote,” he said. “I hope one of my thoughts is … are we going to do something that Jesus would approve of doing — to provide health care access to the most vulnerable in our community.

“It’s time for action.”

Medicaid expansion has remained a top issue in the upcoming election, perhaps most prevalently featured in the gubernatorial race.

Republican incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves has remained opposed to the policy change, reiterating his opposition as recently as last month, while Democratic challenger Brandon Presley has vowed repeatedly to expand Medicaid on his first day in office, if elected.

People in the faith community are increasingly calling for Medicaid expansion, including leaders at Reeves’ own church, which is hosting a series of lectures this weekend about how providing access to health care is a Christian value.

Mississippi is one of only 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid.

Research shows that over its first few years of implementation, expansion would bring in billions of dollars to Mississippi. That money is needed — the pandemic weakened an already-frail health care infrastructure, and now nearly half of the state’s rural hospitals are at risk of closure, partially due to money lost caring for uninsured patients.

Event-goers attend the Better Health Summit event at Duling Hall in Jackson, Miss., on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Kimberly Hughes, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s government relations director, stressed how critical insurance coverage is in the fight against cancer. Mississippi has one of the highest cancer mortality rates in the nation.

“Cancer is curable if it’s caught early, and it’s only caught early if it’s screened for, and screening requires appropriate health insurance,” she said.

Hughes described the types of Mississippians who expansion would cover — veterans, working parents and low-wage workers.

“Stop and think about people that you know, people that you love, people that are your neighbors that have no health insurance that could greatly benefit from it,” she said.

Rev. Jason Coker, a Baptist pastor and the president of Together for Hope, described his wife’s experience as a cancer survivor and wondered how other people could undergo the same thing without knowing they have access to treatment.

Though emergency rooms by law cannot turn down patients, other medical facilities can, making preventative treatment near-impossible to come by without health insurance.

“If we as the state of Mississippi are big Christians, super Baptist, if we can’t understand that as a moral issue, our religion is dead and worthless,” he said.

He described the connection between poverty and poor health outcomes, emphasizing the need for expansion.

According to Coker, 53 of the state’s 82 counties are in “persistent poverty,” and expansion would impact 200,000 to 300,000 Mississippians.

“People getting access to health care … We think that it is a moral obligation on our states to do that,” Coker said.

As Reeves and other state leaders who oppose expansion have derisively referred to Medicaid expansion as adding more people to “welfare rolls,” Coker warned Mississippians to take heed and reflect on themselves.

“So much of our politics in this day is bound up in that idea of who deserves state aid. Who deserves our help? You can only ask that question if you are standing in the seat of power,” Coker said. “We have elected officials in this state … who had the power to do something, and decided not to do it because they didn’t think someone else deserved it, or was worthy of it.

“And make no bones about it: That’s as deeply rooted in white superiority as anything that we know and our lived experience in the state of Mississippi. We call it racism. But it’s more than racism. It is white superiority.”

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

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Mississippi Today

Podcast: Mississippi Today welcomes longtime veteran Mississippi journalist Emily Wagster Pettus as its new senior editor.

Published

2 days ago

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May 12, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-05-12 06:00:00

by Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today
May 12, 2025

Pettus shares a few war stories with Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender, including her dealings with the irascible former Gov. Kirk Fordice. 

READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

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

The post Podcast: Mississippi Today welcomes longtime veteran Mississippi journalist Emily Wagster Pettus as its new senior editor. appeared first on mississippitoday.org

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Mississippi Today

Control of a special session is the governor’s superpower, but is it really that super?

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3 days ago

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May 11, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @BobbyHarrison9 – 2025-05-11 06:00:00


The Mississippi governor holds exclusive authority to call special sessions and set their agenda, a power granted by the state constitution. However, this power is often contested by legislators who interpret the governor’s agenda with significant leeway. The article explores past instances where disagreements arose, such as in 2008 and 2002, illustrating the tensions between the governor’s authority and legislative actions. While the governor can veto bills that exceed the special session call, the Mississippi Supreme Court has generally avoided intervening in legislative procedures, as seen in the case of the “demon chipmunk” computer application.

by Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today
May 11, 2025

The Mississippi Constitution gives the governor the sole authority to call a special session and to set the agenda.

It is one of the few powers granted to the governor by the Mississippi Constitution.

But in reality, the special session power the governor possesses can be limited by legislators if they so choose.

Granted, the Legislature cannot convene a special session. Once legislators end a regular session, they cannot return unless called by the governor or until the next regularly scheduled session. Lawmakers are dependent on the governor to call a special session to allow them to take up a state budget, which they remarkably were unable to pass during the regular session that ended in early April.

Many believe that the governor will have more authority over the budget in special session than in regular session. For instance, can the Legislature consider a bill to fund special projects throughout the state if Gov. Tate Reeves does not include what is known by many as the “Christmas tree bill” in the agenda? Debate over that special projects bill appears to be the major sticking point preventing a budget agreement between the House and Senate. The House wants a Christmas tree bill. The Senate does not.

In 2008, then-Republican Gov. Haley Barbour called the Legislature into special session to levy a tax on hospitals to fund a $90 million Medicaid deficit. House leaders instead tried to pass a “compromise” bill that levied a tax on cigarettes, combined with a smaller hospital tax.

Republicans screamed that the cigarette tax could not be considered because it was not part of Barbour’s call. Then-Speaker Billy McCoy ruled that the governor could set the agenda for the special session — to provide more funding for Medicaid — but could not dictate how that funding was derived.

The whole issue became moot because Democrats could not garner the votes to pass their proposal. Yet, they also were able to block the hospital tax increase.

The end result was that the special session ended without the Medicaid funding issue being resolved. The issue lingered for more than a year.

In the 82-day 2002 special session, then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove placed on the agenda the issue of providing protection from lawsuits for medical providers. He said he would expand the agenda to allow lawsuit protection for all businesses after the medical provider bill reached his desk.

But the Senate leaders said the governor could not limit how they addressed lawsuit protection. They wanted to do it all in one bill.

But the House, not as set on what some called “tort reform,” said it could only address the issue of lawsuit protection for medical providers because of the agenda set by the governor.

For several days, the two chambers literally sat and stared at each other.

Finally, then-House Speaker Tim Ford asked for an official opinion from Attorney General Mike Moore on whether lawsuit protection could be considered for all businesses. Moore’s opinion said that only lawsuit protection for medical providers could be considered since that was the limit of the governor’s call.

The AG’s opinion did not carry the force of law. But the Senate leaders, who said they did not agree with the opinion, finally acquiesced and worked with the House to pass lawsuit protection for medical providers. And then, Musgrove, true to his word, expanded the call to give legislators the ability to consider additional protections for businesses.

The bottom line is that lawmakers have substantial leeway in a special session to interpret the governor’s call. By the same token, the governor can veto legislation if he thinks the Legislature exceeded his call or not sign the bill and ask the courts to block the legislative action.

But the Mississippi Supreme Court has been reluctant to get involved in the inner workings of the Legislature.

For instance, the state constitution gives any legislator the option to have a bill read before final passage. That provision has been used as a method to slow down the legislative process or as a form of protest. In recent years, the legislative leadership countered by using a computer application to have the bills read at a super high speed. The program, spitting out words at an incomprehensible speed, was dubbed the “demon chipmunk.”

The leadership was sued, claiming the demon chipmunk speed violated the state constitution.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the legislative leadership and the demon chipmunk.

The majority opinion read, “We hold the court lacks constitutional authority to interfere in the procedural workings of the Legislature, even when those procedures are constitutionally mandated.”

If Supreme Court justices are not going to strike down the demon chipmunk, would they get involved in a fight over the interpretation of the governor’s special session agenda?

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

The post Control of a special session is the governor's superpower, but is it really that super? 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: Centrist

The article maintains a neutral tone while exploring the power dynamics between Mississippi’s governor and the legislature regarding special sessions. It does not advocate for a specific political stance but rather provides historical context and examples of how the governor’s authority over special sessions has been exercised and contested. The article focuses on the intricacies of governance and the balance of power, presenting both the limitations and potential for conflict in the special session process without showing clear bias toward either political party or perspective.

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Mississippi Today

Even in red America, clean energy is booming. But now, huge renewable projects are dead.

Published

4 days ago

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May 10, 2025

By

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-05-10 06:00:00


Renewable energy in the U.S. has experienced significant growth, with solar, wind, and geothermal energy tripling over the past decade, significantly reducing emissions and improving resilience. However, these advancements are now facing increased resistance, particularly due to President Trump’s efforts to dismantle federal climate policies. Despite widespread adoption in red states like Florida and North Carolina, nearly \$8 billion in renewable energy investments were canceled in early 2025 due to market uncertainty and concerns over potential cuts to clean energy tax credits. This decline in investment reflects broader concerns about the future of renewable energy in the U.S. under changing political conditions.

by Ames Alexander, Floodlight, Mississippi Today
May 10, 2025

This story was originally published by Floodlight.

Renewable energy in the United States has surged to unprecedented levels, with the combined power generated by solar, wind and geothermal more than tripling over the past decade, according to a new report by a network of state environmental groups.

The growth has slashed harmful greenhouse gas emissions, made the nation’s energy system more resilient and prevented thousands of premature deaths from power plant pollution, according to the report by Environment America.

But this progress faces increasing resistance as President Donald Trump in his first 15 weeks in office has begun to dismantle federal policies and spending aimed at slowing climate change.

It’s all happening at a time of heightened concern among environmentalists. Despite an international accord to lower greenhouse gas emissions, the atmosphere now contains record levels of heat-trapping gasses. All 50 states have warmed since the first Earth Day in 1970, according to a new analysis by Climate Central, an independent nonprofit group that researches and disseminates information about climate change and its effects.

Among the highlights of the Environment America report:

  • The amount of solar energy produced in 2024 — enough to power 28 million homes — was nearly eight times higher than a decade earlier. Solar power production increased 27% from 2023 to 2024.
  • Wind produced even more energy — enough to power 42 million homes in 2024. The amount of power from wind has more than doubled over the past decade.
  • Wind, solar and geothermal energy accounted for 19% of all retail sales of electricity last year, according to the federal data used to produce the report.
  • The amount of utility-scale battery storage in the United States grew 63% from 2023 to 2024 — and a more than 80-fold increase over the past decade.
  • Nearly 3.3 million electric vehicles were on U.S. roads at the end of 2023 – a 25-fold increase from 2014. The number of electric vehicle charging ports, meanwhile, grew to more than 218,000 at the end of 2024 – six times more than 2015 and a 24% increase from just the year before.

More than 1.5 million plug-in electric vehicles were sold in 2024, an increase of more than 7% over the previous year, according to Argonne National Laboratory. Nearly 300,000 new electric vehicles were sold in the United States during the first quarter of 2025 — an 11% increase over the same period last year, Kelley Blue Book data shows.

“The growth of these clean energy technologies is now clearly benefiting people in all 50 states, and they’re really providing the building blocks of a clean energy system free from dirty and inefficient fuels,” said Johanna Neumann, senior director of the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, which is led by Environment America. “And the more that we can accelerate the progress that we’ve seen, the better it’ll be for our health and for our environment.” 

Most of the states that have seen the biggest percentage increases in wind, solar and geothermal energy over the past decade are in the South — and most are Republican states, according to a Floodlight analysis of the federal data used in the Environment America report. 

Some of those states, including Mississippi and Alabama, still rank low in the total amount of renewable energy produced. But other right-leaning Southern states, including Florida and North Carolina, now rank above most others in terms of the total renewable energy generated.

Farmland in Dundee, Miss., is overlooked by rotating wind turbines on Oct. 14, 2024.

Billions in clean-energy projects canceled 

For those concerned about climate change, however, a new analysis points to a more worrisome sign: Almost $8 billion in investments — including 16 large-scale factories and other projects — were canceled, closed or downsized in the first three months of 2025, according to the report by E2, a nonpartisan group of business leaders who advocate for sound environmental policies.

Likely contributing to the cancellations: market uncertainty and the debate in Congress over repealing tax credits and other incentives for clean energy projects. The $7.9 billion in investments withdrawn this year are more than three times the amount canceled over the previous two years, the E2 report notes.

“Clean energy companies still want to invest in America, but uncertainty over Trump administration policies and the future of critical clean energy tax credits are taking a clear toll,” E2 spokesman Michael Timberlake said in a statement.

The Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s massive climate law, extended renewable energy tax credits until at least 2032. Whether the Republican-controlled Congress will eliminate those tax credits is unclear.

“I think that market certainty has been stripped away for many of these technologies right now, and they’re feeling uneasy,” Neumann said. “And so it’s not surprising to me that we’re seeing a retraction in investment.”

Floodlight is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action.

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

The post Even in red America, clean energy is booming. But now, huge renewable projects are dead. 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

The article presents a factual overview of the recent developments in renewable energy, particularly the increasing resistance and setbacks in clean energy projects in the United States. While the article details the progress in renewable energy and highlights concerns about the future of such projects under the current administration, it frames the issue within the broader context of environmental and policy debates. The use of terms such as “climate change,” “dismantling federal policies,” and “uncertainty over Trump administration policies” leans toward a more critical stance on current Republican policies, giving it a Center-Left tilt. It focuses on the negative consequences of policy changes rather than offering a balanced perspective of the differing political views on the matter. However, the article does not overtly push a particular political agenda, keeping the analysis grounded in facts. The presentation of both positive growth in renewable energy and the resulting challenges contributes to a generally neutral reporting style, albeit with a slight emphasis on environmental concerns that align with Center-Left ideologies.

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