Mississippi Today

‘What’s your plan, watch Rome burn?’: Politicians continue to reject solution to growing hospital crisis

Published

3 years ago

November 16, 2022

‘What’s your plan, watch Rome burn?’: Politicians continue to reject solution to growing hospital crisis

by Sara DiNatale, Mississippi Today
November 16, 2022

Note: This article is part of Mississippi Today’s ongoing Mississippi Health Care Crisis project.Read more about the project by clicking here.

Mississippi's only burn center has closed. The Delta's only neonatal intensive care unit has closed. A Jackson hospital that serves vulnerable populations is gutting key services to balance its budget. One of the state's largest hospitals is months, if not weeks, from shutting its doors for good.

Mississippi hospitals are in crisis, struggling to keep up with rising industry costs and cover care for the sixth-most uninsured population in America. Six hospitals have closed across the state since 2005, and countless more have reduced services and staff.

Even more sobering, the state's top health care leaders warn that a dozen more hospitals across the state are in imminent danger of closing.

“Things are getting worse, not better,” Dr. Dan Edney, the state’s health officer, said in an October Board of Health meeting. “We know of 10-12 hospitals statewide that may not even be here one year from now … Those of us who are watching this in health care leadership statewide have a lot of concern.”

As the Mississippi health care crisis worsens, the state's political leaders are facing growing pressure from health care professionals to do something they've refused for 12 years: expand Medicaid. Doing so, as 38 states have done, would provide immediate financial relief to the state's hospitals that are struggling to stay alive, countless economic and health care experts have said.

About 12% of Mississippians are uninsured, leaving hospitals with little to no way to recoup the costs of care administered to some of the nation’s poorest and unhealthiest patients. Hospitals are required to provide life-saving care to everyone, regardless of whether they’re insured. In many cases, those costs are bringing hospitals — including Greenwood Leflore Hospital in the Mississippi Delta — to the brink of closing.

Studies, including one from the state economist, have shown Medicaid expansion would provide health care coverage for at least 200,000 primarily working Mississippians who don’t currently have it. More than $1 billion per year would flow to the state after expansion, and hospitals would directly receive hundreds of millions to cover rising costs. The study also showed Medicaid expansion would create more than 11,000 jobs per year from 2022 to 2027.

"When you have major hospital systems in this state that have lost a quarter billion dollars last year, hospitals that have never had losses having them now and others budgeting for major losses for next year — the number of hospitals close to the brink is the most it's ever been,” said Tim Moore, president of the Mississippi Hospital Association, an organization that has for years lobbied for Medicaid expansion.

But Gov. Tate Reeves, Speaker of the House Philip Gunn and several powerful political brokers in Jackson have stood firm against even the suggestion of expansion, ignoring the dozens of economic experts who say the state can afford it and that hospitals would be much better off.

“No, I don't support expanding Medicaid in Mississippi,” Reeves told a Mississippi Today reporter last week during a hospital event in Ocean Springs. “I made, very clear, my position when I was running for governor in 2019. What we've got to do in Mississippi is we've got to continue to focus on economic development, job creation, bringing better and higher paying jobs to our state.”

The health care landscape in Mississippi — and nationwide — has changed dramatically since Reeves first made that campaign promise. The stresses of the pandemic widened the cracks in already struggling hospital systems. Labor and supplies costs have surged, making even traditionally profitable hospitals reassess their budgets and services.

Reeves recently pushed legislation giving $246 million in state-funded incentives to a steel mill promising 1,000 new jobs in 10 years. It is private sector jobs, Reeves said, that will most benefit the state’s health care.

“People who work in the private sector that have private insurance have typically far better coverage,” he said.

But the state’s leaders have repeated that refrain for many years, and little has budged with either job creation or health care outcomes. Meanwhile, hospitals across the state are scrambling to make up for lost revenue.

One of the state’s largest hospitals, North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, is having to manage higher operating costs while caring for uninsured patients. State Sen. Chad McMahan, a Republican who represents the hospital and surrounding area, stops short of advocating for Medicaid expansion. But unlike many of his GOP colleagues in the Legislature, he wants to debate its merits.

The main reason he’s publicly bucked his party leaders, McMahan says: His local hospital would benefit.

“I’ll tell you how large the hospital is,” McMahan told Mississippi Today. “The hospital is so large that if it were to close, we’d have to have seven Toyota-sized manufacturing plants to replace the economic value and salaries (of the hospital), which means it would never happen in our lifetime. Values of homes would drop 15% overnight. You better believe I’m for health care. I’m for health care because it's the right thing to do for Mississippians … It’ll sustain our communities, cities and counties.”

Gulfport Memorial Hospital, another major institution whose CEO is a major political donor to Reeves, reported operating costs going up nearly 18% in 2021. They hit operating losses just shy of $67 million for the last fiscal year.

To Gulfport’s east, the Singing River Health System’s CEO is searching for a larger system to buy its publicly-owned Gulf Coast hospitals. The system is not in dire financial straits, but leadership says they’re trying to be proactive before they hit a crisis point.

In his recent announcement of the tax incentives for the steel mill, Reeves did not mention the 600-plus current jobs that are in jeopardy at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. But the major hospital in the Delta could close imminently, leaders warn. They hoped to strike a deal with the state’s only academic hospital – Jackson’s University of Mississippi Medical Center – but those plans dissolved at the beginning of the month.

Greenwood Leflore leaders are trying to stretch their budget to stay open over the next two months with hopes the Mississippi Legislature will step in to save it. Greenwood Leflore interim CEO Gary Marchand has publicly advocated for Medicaid expansion, saying it would go a long way in helping balance the hospital’s budget.

“What’s your plan: To watch Rome burn and to let hospitals close?” said Dr. Gary Wiltz, a Medicaid advocate and the CEO of a system of 19 of rural health clinics in Louisiana. “It goes back to a fundamental question: is health care a right or a privilege?”

Q&A: What is Medicaid expansion, really?

Pioneer Community Hospital of Newton on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. The hospital closed in December 2015.

Merit Health Central, a private hospital in Jackson, has moved or is planning to move its cardiovascular services, neonatal intensive care unit and endoscopy to other locations outside of the city. It already closed its burn center – the only in the state to provide specialized care.

Merit Health Central, formerly Hinds General Hospital, has long been a health care and employment hub in south and west Jackson. Merit Health pointed to “the state’s decision to not expand Medicaid” in addition to labor costs and staffing challenges as to why it is scaling back its operations in a statement to Mississippi Today.

Even Mississippi hospitals that may not be in imminent danger of closing are still facing uncovered costs that are beginning to bleed their budgets dry. Masks, surgical supplies, even food and human resource services have all shot up cost – and that’s on top of the charity treatment hospitals incur costs of for patients too poor to pay for care.

Stan Bulger, who serves on the board of directors at Magee General Hospital, said expanding Medicaid would help to offset revenue losses his hospital incurs for uncompensated care.

"We're losing out on about 15% of the revenue we could collect every month," Bulger said. "We're constantly trying to find ways to make that work, but if you think about it, no business can operate long-term with that much loss. Expanding Medicaid would significantly help us cover that hole, and it could legitimately keep us alive."

UMMC, the state’s only academic hospital, had a $7 million loss in its first fiscal quarter – a loss they predicted as they battled rising nursing costs. The hospital system spent $22 million on staffing temporary nurses to fill gaps. These nurses make about two-and-half times the salaries of those nurses actually employed by the hospital.

Singing River has about 200 positions open. That’s staffing they, too, have to fill with pricier contracted labor. Singing River CEO Tiffany Murdock said she supports Medicaid expansion – and that she agrees any revenue would help hospitals fill gaps.

“If they’re just coming into our hospital with those acute care problems, they are a high dollar,” said Murdock. “With (Medicaid expansion) we’d get reimbursement for that expense that right now…we’re not.”

Increased health care coverage would also likely lead to better patient outcomes. Typically patients without health care go without a primary care doctor, their health problems getting worse – and more expensive – than if they had access to intervening medical care.

Kilmichael Hospital in Kilmichael on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. The hospital closed in January 2015.

Wiltz, the Louisiana doctor and CEO of Teche Action Clinic, saw how health care in Louisiana transformed under Medicaid expansion: diabetes patients who risked limb loss with their disease now under control and people with cancerous polyps removed during colonoscopies they would have likely never had without coverage.

As of October of this year, 750,340 people in Louisiana have enrolled in Medicaid expansion. Since 2017, the state health department reported that 84,651 people received colonoscopies that likely wouldn’t have before expansion. Of that, close to 26,000 got polyps removed that could help prevent colon cancer. Another 131,680 got breast cancer screenings.

Wiltz has an easier time balancing his system’s books to secure their future serving rural residents because of the reliable reimbursements form his patients.

“Thank God Louisiana and our governor had enough integrity and compassion to expand Medicaid,” he said. “I really hope that other states – particularly Mississippi – that sees a similar population as we do would come to that same conclusion.”

But in Mississippi, as health care leaders continue to hope Medicaid expansion could soon get a fair debate at the Capitol, they’re having to live with the financial consequences of politics.

“I've been involved in health care in Mississippi since the early 1970s, and this is the worst, by far, of that span in my 50-year career in medicine in this state — both in terms of stability of hospitals, of having enough nurses and doctors and therapists and specialists to staff our hospitals, and in terms of patients having access to care because they're uninsured,” said Dr. Dan Jones, former chief executive of the University of Mississippi Medical Center who has since become the American Heart Association's national volunteer lead for healthcare expansion.

“People dying and hospitals closing are a real consequence of our failure to take advantage of expanding Medicaid.”

Mississippi Today’s Kate Royals, Geoff Pender and Adam Ganucheau contributed to this report.

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.