Mississippi Today
Hosemann announces Senate plan to help Mississippi hospital crisis
Hosemann announces Senate plan to help Mississippi hospital crisis
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said measures he’s pushing in the Senate will help with Mississippi’s hospital crisis “not just next year, but for the next generation.”
The Senate plan would provide immediate help to hospitals with grants, remove legal barriers to consolidation of small hospitals and try to incentivize nurses and doctors to stay in Mississippi.
Hosemann said he is also working with Mississippi Medicaid and Gov. Tate Reeves to see if Medicaid can increase reimbursement to hospitals for some services. But Hosemann, one of few GOP leaders open to Medicaid expansion through the federal Affordable Care Act, said he doesn’t foresee full expansion as a starter this year.
READ MORE: Poll: 80% of Mississippians favor Medicaid expansion
Senate leaders have drafted four bills, with a cost of about $111 million as part of the plan Hosemann announced. Hosemann said he worked extensively with the Mississippi Hospital Association and other hospital and health care leaders to come up with this plan. It would:
- Provide $80 million in grants, to help shore hospitals’ flagging revenue and increased costs, which threaten closure of 38 rural hospitals across the state. SB 2372 would distribute money to hospitals based on the number of licensed beds and type of care. Hosemann said it would also require hospitals to provide data that lawmakers could use to overhaul the state’s health delivery system. He said adjustments are needed to meet demographic and other changes.
- Change “anti-trust” laws or other state legal barriers to “collaboration and consolidation” of hospitals. Hosemann said SB2323, which has a mirror bill in the House, would not change the state’s certificate of need laws that limit where certain hospital beds and specialties can go, but that “our CON laws are due for a review” and will likely also be examined this year. For the long run, Hosemann said the state’s health care infrastructure needs to be reorganized and modernized to make facilities more financially viable.
- Provide $6 million for a nurse loan repayment program. Hosemann said SB 2373 is a do-over of a bill passed last year that did not work to address the states drastic shortage, estimated at about 3,000 nurses. He said changes the House made last year and other issues derailed the program, but those issues are being worked out. The plan, using federal pandemic relief money, would provide $6,000 a year, for up to three years, for nurses who agree to work at Mississippi hospitals.
- Provide $20 million for a nursing/allied health community college grant program. SB2371 would use federal pandemic funds, initially, for grants to help community colleges’ nursing and health programs. Hosemann said many of the programs have long waiting lists and shortage of faculty, equipment and infrastructure needed to train nurses. Hosemann noted the COVID-19 pandemic showed the importance of nurses and “our community colleges are leading the way in providing nurses throughout the state.”
- Provide $5 million to help with hospital residency and fellowship programs. Also in SB2371, this proposal, funded by federal pandemic money, would help create new programs, or add capacity to existing residency and fellowship programs in medical or surgical specialty areas at Mississippi hospitals. Hosemann said the federal government provides reimbursement for some residents or fellowships at hospitals, but the initial startup costs are prohibitive, and this new plan would help. He said that hospitals report that a majority of doctors stay in areas where they do their residencies.
READ MORE: Democrats finalize hospital crisis plan, blast Republicans for inaction
Hosemann on Wednesday also reiterated his support for extending postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days to a year. The Senate passed such measures last year, but they were killed in the House.
“We won the pro-life case, and now we’re unwilling to take care of our moms?” Hosemann said. “I don’t understand how you can make that argument.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.
When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.
He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.
The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.
Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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