Mississippi Today
How House Republicans are avoiding tough votes on health care solutions
How House Republicans are avoiding tough votes on health care solutions
Note: This analysis anchored Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter.Subscribe to our free newsletterfor exclusive access to legislative analysis and up-to-date information about what’s happening under the Capitol dome.
Rep. Bryant Clark, a Democrat from Pickens, stood on the House floor last week for what looked to be a routine amendment to a Republican-authored bill that would create an $80 million grant program for financially struggling hospitals.
All session long, Democrats have hammered Republicans for not doing more to address the Mississippi hospital crisis, which threatens to shutter dozens of medical facilities across the state. Hospital leaders, doctors and nurses, local elected officials, and many everyday Mississippians have begged lawmakers to step in to save the system.
Clark explained that his amendment would increase the Republicans’ proposed $80 million grant program to $275 million. His amendment would also have added an additional $25 million program for hospitals with 75 or fewer beds. With a $4 billion budget surplus, Clark argued, Republicans could do better to keep hospitals open than a one-time, $80 million grant program.
But as soon as Clark finished explaining his amendment, Republican Speaker of the House Philip Gunn recognized Republican Rep. Steve Massengill, who made a motion to table Clark’s amendment. That motion passed by a vote of 70-44, killing his amendment and abruptly cutting off what could have been — and perhaps should have been — a longer, earnest debate about the amount of money lawmakers should provide struggling hospitals.
In the end, Republicans did not have to vote on Clark’s amendment. They instead simply killed it and later passed exactly what they wanted: $80 million for struggling hospitals, and $80 million only.
House Republican leaders, who have nearly complete power to act without any true dissent or opposition, appear to be further tightening their grip on the legislative process by motioning to table amendments offered by Democrats. It’s a seldom used procedural move, but Republicans did it twice last week. And smart money would be on them continuing it in coming days.
READ MORE:The purposefully broken lawmaking process in Jackson
The procedure allows Republicans to avoid taking tough votes. And in the process, they can stifle debate about issues that large majorities of the state’s voters want them to address — like the state’s critical hospital crisis and other health care-related issues.
When a bill comes up on the House floor for a vote, any lawmaker can propose an amendment to that bill. This is a critical step in the legislative process that often improves pieces of legislation and ensures that the public can fully understand why or how laws are passed. Often, this is when some of the most important Mississippi political debates occur.
In the Mississippi Legislature, where Republicans have supermajority control of both the House and Senate, amendments live or die based on what the Republican chair defending the original bill says on the floor. But even under GOP rule, there is almost always fair consideration and debate of any amendment in question.
That is, until last week, when House Republicans tabled Clark’s amendment on the hospital grants bill. The move is an escalation of tension between Republican leaders and Democrats, who have virtually no voting power inside the Capitol but have implemented a pesky and persistent political strategy this session.
Here’s how Rep. Robert Johnson, the House Democratic leader from Natchez, explained it:
We introduce legislation, they kill it. It doesn’t even get a debate in committee. A lot of times, the committees don’t even meet. Republicans have a supermajority, so they’re able to do that and anything else they want to. But when we go home and constituents ask us how the Republicans voted on something, we can’t answer that question because they didn’t even allow it to come up for debate, let alone a vote. You don’t really know where Republicans stand on anything because of how they conduct business.
They’re killing all our bills — bills that would do common sense things like help hospitals keep their doors open and help poor, working folks afford trips to the doctor and help poor mothers not die after giving birth. Our next step, then, is amending legislation on the floor. That puts Republicans on the board, so to speak, on the record with the public.
All we can do is try to make sure every Mississippian sees what’s happening. We want Republicans to be transparent with their constituents. We want everyone to know exactly where they stand on the big issues. It’s about transparency and knowing what the people you elect are doing at the Legislature. If 70-80% of the electorate wants Medicaid expansion and Republicans kill it over and over again, they’re effectively voting against the interests of the electorate. We want to put them on the board about that.
Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez
House Republicans, apparently, have caught on to the Democrats’ strategy. It’s evident that Democrats aren’t going to stop proposing amendments about additional hospital funding, about expanding Medicaid to provide up to 300,000 working Mississippians with health care coverage, about extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to help new and expecting mothers afford decent health care.
READ MORE: Republicans don’t have to listen to their Black colleagues. That’s how they designed it.
And looking ahead on the House calendar, there are several Republican bills dealing with health care issues that Democrats could attach germane amendments to and continue trying to get Republicans “on the board.” How Republicans handle those amendments in coming days — and whether they’ll motion to table them — could inspire some high drama and further escalate tension between the party leaders.
“It’s a complete abuse of power,” Johnson said. “Republicans are just neophytes when it comes to the legislative process. They’ve got enough votes. There should be a mature way to handle everything, one that doesn’t keep Mississippi taxpayers and voters in the dark. But they take shortcuts. They go into caucus meetings and rig votes, then they cut off debate on the floor. It’s an abuse of a great deal of power, and I don’t think that’s something Mississippians will appreciate in the long run.
“We’ll continue to expose them,” Johnson continued. “People are picking it up, and I take it as an indication that our strategy has been effective. Republicans don’t want to take another vote on Medicaid expansion. I wonder why that is. Then they’re talking only $80 million for hospitals? It just pisses people off. I hope they keep it up, I really do. I just don’t think they can see how bad they look.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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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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