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Coalition of 36 organizations pushes lawmakers for Medicaid expansion in Mississippi

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11 months ago

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As Medicaid expansion remains a top political issue in Mississippi — and sure to be debated this legislative session — one group will be advocating for the policy on the front lines.

Care4Mississippi is a coalition of 36 partner organizations, and growing, focused on getting Medicaid expanded in Mississippi.

Co-chair Kimberly Hughes, who’s also the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s government relations director, says this is the first time the coalition will be “active” during the legislative session, but the work on this issue began years ago.

Many of the coalition’s current partners were part of the Yes on 76 campaign, which was a statewide effort to get expansion of Medicaid on the 2022 ballot through the state’s ballot-initiative process.

However, the campaign was suspended in May 2021 after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the state’s initiative process was invalid. Since then, efforts to reinstate it have failed.

There is currently no ballot initiative process in Mississippi, which is meant to allow citizens to circumvent politicians and place an issue on a statewide ballot for voter consideration.

Yes on 76 stakeholders took a few months off, Hughes said, before convening to create Care4Mississippi in 2022.

“We’ve tried to keep the issue alive and keep partners engaged, especially after we had to change our plans to more of a legislative campaign,” Hughes said.

The organization was less active in 2023 because it was an election year, she said, and focused its efforts on recruiting partners. It appeared many people were waiting to see who won the gubernatorial election, in which incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves bested his pro-expansion Democratic opponent Brandon Presley, before deciding to get involved with the coalition, Hughes said.

Since the coalition spent the past year preparing for this legislative session, it’s coming armed with a trove of information on Medicaid expansion.

“We want to be that clearinghouse for information,” she said. “There’s momentum around this issue, in the public and the press and with some of our lawmakers, so we’ve been trying to get ready for that.”

Kimberly Hughes, a Care4Mississippi coalition member, looks at the county health and economic data map on the Care4MS’s website as she and other members discuss the organization and its mission on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, at the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program office in Jackson, Miss. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

The coalition’s website already features resources for people who want to learn more, including national and state research that underlines the policy’s benefits for Mississippi, as well as a data map created by the coalition that shows how Medicaid expansion would impact every county in Mississippi.

Researchers estimate somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 Mississippians currently fall in Medicaid’s coverage gap — they make too much to qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford insurance on their own — and would be insured if the policy was expanded to the working poor as most other states have done.

Coalition leaders say information is essential to dispelling myths about expansion perpetuated by state officials and empowering Mississippians to advocate for the policy.

Reeves remains a staunch opponent and has referred to expanding Medicaid health coverage as adding more people to the state’s welfare rolls.

“We want to be a credible center voice on the issue of creating a solution or covering those who have no affordable option for health insurance,” said Blair Ewing, the coalition’s program coordinator and lobbyist. “We want to challenge our leaders to work together to find solutions, stop hospital closures and create access to care for Mississippi families.”

Moving forward, Ewing said the coalition’s strategy will revolve around recruiting more partners and getting the word out as much as possible, which will include hosting a “Capitol Day” on Feb. 22. The coalition will have a table in the State Capitol’s rotunda to educate passersby about expansion and host a press event on the Capitol steps.

Hughes is hopeful about movement on expansion in Mississippi during this year’s legislative session, especially since new Speaker of the House Jason White says the House will at least consider the policy. His predecessor, Phillip Gunn, was an outspoken opponent and prevented the full House from voting on it during his tenure.

Ewing said that getting the policy passed starts with arming people with the information they need and stressed that anyone, organization or individual, can join on the coalition’s website. Some of its current members include the heavily involved Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, as well as the Mississippi Center for Justice, Mississippi Hospital Association, American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, Center for Mississippi Health Policy and American Heart Association.

“I think if constituents knew more, if there was more information out there and they actually started going to their congressman about it, then things would change,” she said. “There’s an unbelievable amount of support in the state for closing that Medicaid coverage gap — we know people want our legislators to do something about it.”

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

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On this day in 1865

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17 hours ago

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December 24, 2024

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-24 07:00:00

Dec. 24, 1865

The Ku Klux Klan began on Christmas Eve in 1865. Credit: Zinn Education Project

Months after the fall of the Confederacy and the end of slavery, a half dozen veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, called the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK soon became a terrorist organization, brutalizing and killing Black Americans, immigrants, sympathetic whites and others. 

While the first wave of the KKK operated in the South through the 1870s, the second wave spread throughout the U.S., adding Catholics, Jews and others to their enemies’ list. Membership rose to 4 million or so. 

The KKK returned again in the 1950s and 1960s, this time in opposition to the civil rights movement. Despite the history of violence by this organization, the federal government has yet to declare the KKK a terrorist organization.

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

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An old drug charge sent her to prison despite a life transformation. Now Georgia Sloan is home

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20 hours ago

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December 24, 2024

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-12-24 04:00:00

CANTON –  Georgia Sloan is home, back from a potentially life-derailing stint in prison that she was determined to instead make meaningful. 

She hadn’t used drugs in three years and she had a life waiting for her outside the Mississippi Correctional Institute for Women in Pearl: a daughter she was trying to reunite with, a sick mother and a career where she found purpose. 

During 10 months of incarceration, Sloan, who spent over half of her life using drugs, took classes, read her Bible and helped other women. Her drug possession charge was parole eligible, and the Parole Board approved her for early release. 

At the end of October, she left the prison and returned to Madison County. The next day she was back at work at Musee, a Canton-based bath products company that employs formerly incarcerated women like Sloan and others in the community facing difficulties. She first started working at the company in 2021. 

“This side of life is so beautiful. I would literally hold on to my promise every single minute of the day while I was in (prison),” Sloan told Mississippi Today in December. 

Next year, she is moving into a home in central Mississippi, closer to work and her new support system. Sloan plans to bring her daughter and mother to live with her. Sloan is hopeful of regaining custody of her child, who has been cared for by her aunt on a temporary basis. 

“This is my area now,” she said. “This has become my family, my life. This is where I want my child to grow up. This is where I want to make my life because this is my life.” 

Additionally, Sloan is taking other steps to readjust to life after prison: getting her driver’s license for the first time in over a decade, checking in monthly with her parole officer and paying court-ordered fines and restitution. 

In December 2023, Sloan went to court in Columbus for an old drug possession charge from when she was still using drugs. 

Sloan thought the judge would see how much she had turned her life around through Crossroads Ministries, a nonprofit women’s reentry center she entered in 2021, and Musee. Her boss Leisha Pickering who drove her to court and spoke as a witness on Sloan’s behalf, thought the judge would order house arrest or time served. 

Circuit Judge James “Jim” Kitchens of the 16th District.

Instead, Circuit Judge James Kitchens sentenced her to eight years with four years suspended and probation. 

He seemed doubtful about her transformation, saying she didn’t have a “contrite heart.” By choosing to sell drugs, Kitchens said she was “(making) other people addicts,” according to a transcript of the Dec. 4, 2023, hearing. 

“I felt like my life literally crumbled before my eyes,” Sloan said about her return to prison. “Everything I had worked so hard for, it felt like it had been snatched from me.”

She was taken from the courtroom to the Lowndes County Detention Center, where she spent two months before her transfer to the women’s prison in Rankin County. 

Sloan found the county jail more difficult because there was no separation between everyone there. But the prison had its own challenges, such as violence between inmates and access to drugs, which would have threatened her sobriety. 

She kept busy by taking classes, which helped her set a goal to take college courses one day with a focus on business. Visits, phone calls and letters from family members and staff from Musee and Crossroads were her lifeline. 

“I did not let prison break me, I rose above it, and I got to help restore other ladies,” Sloan said. 

She also helped several women in the prison get to Crossroads – the same program that helped her and others at Musee. 

Sloan credits a long-term commitment to Crossroads and Musee for turning her life around – the places where she said someone believed in her and took a chance on her. 

Georgia Sloan, left, and Leisha Pickering, founder and CEO of Musee Bath, sit for a portrait at the Musee Bath facility in Canton, Miss., on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Pickering has supported Sloan through her journey of recovery and reentry, providing employment and advocacy as Sloan rebuilds her life after incarceration. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Pickering, Musee’s CEO, said in the three years she’s known Sloan, she’s watched her grow and become a light for others. 

The bath and lifestyle company has employed over 300 formerly incarcerated women in the past dozen years, but Pickering said not everyone has had the same support, advocacy and transformation as Sloan. Regardless, Pickering believes each person is worth fighting for. 

When Sloan isn’t traveling for work to craft markets with Pickering, she shares an office with her Musee colleague Julie Crutcher, who is also formerly incarcerated and a graduate of Crossroads’ programs. She also considers Crutcher a close friend and mentor.

Sloan has traveled to Columbus to see her mother and daughter whom she spent Thanksgiving with. She will see them again for Christmas and celebrate her daughter’s 12th birthday the day after.

Her involvement with the criminal justice system has made Sloan want to advocate for prison reform to help others and be an inspiration to others.

“I never knew what I was capable of,” Sloan said.  “I never knew how much people truly, genuinely love me and love being around me. I never knew how much I could have and how much I could offer the world.”

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

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On this day in 1946

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2 days ago

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December 23, 2024

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-23 07:00:00

Dec. 23, 1946

Chuck Cooper Credit: Wikipedia

University of Tennessee refused to play a basketball game with Duquesne University, because they had a Black player, Chuck Cooper. Despite their refusal, the all-American player and U.S. Navy veteran went on to become the first Black player to participate in a college basketball game south of the Mason-Dixon line. Cooper became the first Black player ever drafted in the NBA — drafted by the Boston Celtics. He went on to be admitted to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

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

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