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New legislative leadership: Nothing off table in tackling Mississippi health issues

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Last year, committee chairs in the House and Senate killed every Medicaid expansion bill without a debate or vote.

Now, for the first time in a decade, a policy that has been politically forbidden in Mississippi will at least get a full hearing. 

That’s because of pivotal changes in House leadership. Newly elected Speaker Jason White appointed Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, to chair the Medicaid Committee, and Sam Creekmore IV, R-New Albany, to chair the Public Health and Human Services Committee.

McGee has been a vocal proponent of postpartum coverage, which passed last year, and presumptive eligibility for pregnant women – which did not. Creekmore, along with Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, successfully passed legislation last year to improve mental health services in the state.

Both say that this year, nothing is off the table. And while leadership on the Senate side of Public Health and Medicaid remains the same, committee chairs there have voiced support of increasing health care coverage and reform. 

“I do think it could definitely be a historic year for the state of Mississippi,” McGee said, “in that we have talked a lot about providing health care to low-income workers.”

McGee and Creekmore have also been diligent about reframing the narrative around expansion to make it clear that the increased coverage they support is not welfare and it’s not a handout – it’s health care coverage for low-income, working-class Mississippians.

“And we don’t really know what that’s going to look like right now,” McGee said, “but it has been something that the majority of Mississippians really support. I’m looking forward to coming up with sound policy that would provide this option for hardworking Mississippians who can’t afford health care – whether their employers don’t offer it, or whether they simply can’t afford to purchase it.”

McGee said she is also looking forward to reintroducing her presumptive eligibility bill – which would allow pregnant women to be presumed eligible for Medicaid and receive timely prenatal care. House Bill 539 was assigned to committee this week.

“We know that with a lot of women who are eligible for Medicaid, it often takes quite a while before they are able to get on their Medicaid benefits – and sometimes it can be beyond the first trimester,” she said.

McGee says she has confidence presumptive eligibility will pass this year, and will help move Mississippi off the top of the list for infant and maternal mortality – which she says is her goal for the term.

“I just feel like it’s got a lot more momentum this year than it has in years past,” she said.

Creekmore said he was surprised at his appointment to chair the Public Health Committee, and he did not ask for it – though it was his first choice.

Creekmore, who comes from a family of health care workers, said health care has always been “near and dear” to him. He remembers, growing up, the phone would sometimes ring in the middle of the night and he would wake up his father to attend a delivery.

“He’s a hometown doctor and he’s my hero,” Creekmore said about his father.

Last year, Creekmore authored House Bill 1222 – which provides mental health training for law enforcement and helps families dealing with the court systems. It passed unanimously. 

“My first four years, for whatever reason, the Lord has led leadership to put me into the mental health realm, and we’ve made some great strides,” Creekmore said. “I want to continue to do that, and I just thought I would be more effective in Public Health.”

In the Senate, Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, is introducing a presumptive eligibility bill similar to McGee’s.

In addition to two presumptive eligibility bills coming from both the House and Senate, Blackwell said, “we’ll also probably have it added to the tech bill. It’s a serious issue for a lot of us on this side.”

The Medicaid technical bill is a notoriously complicated bill with a lot of jargon that outlines the function and scope of Medicaid, and which must be renewed every three years. This year, it’s up for renewal.

The tech bill could be a way to pass presumptive eligibility for pregnant women or Medicaid expansion – if separate bills on those fronts aren’t successfully passed. The tech bill usually bounces back and forth between the chambers, and involves concessions on both sides, since, unlike other bills, the tech bill must be renewed for the program to operate.

Aside from presumptive eligibility, Blackwell also filed Senate Bill 2080, on professional midwifery, and Senate Bill 2079 on nurse-practitioner collaboration agreements.

The midwifery bill would look at establishing a formal licensed midwifery program in the state – the first of its kind.

Midwifery is currently not regulated in Mississippi, meaning anyone can practice without formal training or certification. Midwives who want to undergo a certification program end up going out of state – and sometimes don’t return.

In a state riddled with maternity care deserts, losing providers to neighboring states because they are offering a service Mississippi could easily offer just doesn’t make sense, Blackwell explained.

Midwifery, he says, is an obvious solution for non-complicated, low-risk births, since “women have been helping women have babies since our primitive days.”

Senate Bill 2079 seeks to abolish restrictive collaboration agreements between nurse practitioners and physicians.

These agreements are expensive and limit the freedom with which nurse practitioners can operate. They usually have distance limitations, as well, placing restrictions on how far from their collaborating physicians nurse practitioners can practice. Since most physicians operate in urban areas, that means nurse practitioners can’t provide care to the rural communities that desperately need it.

“All it is is a paid relationship and it needs to go away,” Blackwell said. “Nurse practitioners aren’t killing folks, they’re not doing major surgeries, open heart surgeries. They’re practicing within the confines of their license and given our need to have access to health care, why would we not do this?”

Blackwell has filed similar bills in past years, but they all died in committee.

Like Blackwell in Medicaid, Hob Bryan, D-Amory – the longest-serving state senator – is continuing to chair Public Health.

Bryan said he is excited to be “on the horizon of a new four-year term,” although, he joked, he might not make it that long – a nod to the presentation State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney gave to the Senate Public Health Committee last Wednesday.

In it, Edney had stressed the urgency of several public health metrics and had said to Bryan “I don’t think I’m the oldest one in this room, no offense Mr. Chairman, the life expectancy is 71,” – the lowest in the country.

“These are real numbers that impact real Mississippians,” Edney said. “We have the highest rate of preventable deaths. That means more Mississippians die unnecessarily every year than anywhere else in this country, and these problems have solutions. I trust your good judgment to get us where we need to be. And I want to help you with whatever data, information, resource you need.”

While it’s unclear whether Republicans who say they will consider Medicaid expansion will ultimately support it, Bryan has been more outspoken with his beliefs that the current system of coverage is not working for low-income working Mississippians. 

Diabetes, according to Bryan, is a “maddening example” of a group of people who are ineligible for preventative care, and become eligible for health care only by the time they need to have limbs amputated.

“At which point, congratulations!” Bryan exclaimed. “Now you are disabled and you qualify for health care.”

Edney gave presentations to both the House and Senate Public Health committees during their first meetings of the session. Rep. McGee says her committee will be hearing from Drew Snyder, Mississippi Medicaid executive director, next week.

The deadline to file bills is Feb. 19, later than most years since the first session of a new term is 120 days, as opposed to the typical 90 days.

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

Mississippi Today

Central, south Mississippi voters will decide judicial runoffs on Tuesday

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mississippitoday.org – Taylor Vance – 2024-11-22 11:16:00

Some Mississippi voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide who should represent them on the state’s highest courts. 

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Absentee voting has begun, and in-person absentee voting at county circuit clerk’s offices ends at noon on Saturday. 

In the Jackson Metro area and parts of central Mississippi, incumbent Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens will compete against Republican state Sen. Jenifer Branning of Neshoba County. In areas on the Gulf Coast, Jennifer Schloegel and Amy St. Pé will face each other for an open seat on the Court of Appeals. 

Candidates for judicial offices in Mississippi are technically nonpartisan, but political parties and trade associations often contribute money to candidates and cut ads for them, which has increasingly made  them almost as partisan as other campaigns. 

In the Central District Supreme Court race, GOP forces are working to oust Kitchens, one of the dwindling number of centrist jurists on the high Court. Conservative leaders also realize Kitchens is next in line to lead the court as chief justice should current Chief Justice Mike Randolph step down.

Kitchens is one of two centrist members of the high court and is widely viewed as the preferred candidate of Democrats, though the Democratic Party has not endorsed his candidacy. 

Kitchens, first elected to the court in 2008, is a former district attorney and private-practice lawyer. On the campaign trail, he has pointed to his experience as an attorney and judge, particularly his years prosecuting criminals and his rulings on criminal cases. 

In an interview on Mississippi Today’s ‘The Other Side’ podcast, Kitchens said his opponent, who primarily practices real estate law, would be at a “significant disadvantage” because the state Supreme Court often reviews criminal cases and major civil lawsuits that are sent to them on appeal. 

“I’m sure she has an academic knowledge about the circuit courts that she perhaps learned in law school or perhaps has been to some seminars, but she does not have the hands-on trial experience that I have,” Kitchens said. “And that’s so important to the work that I do.” 

Branning, a private-practice attorney, was first elected to the Legislature in 2015. She has led the Senate Elections and Transportation committees. During her time at the Capitol, she has been one of the more conservative members of the Senate leadership, voting against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem, voting against expanding Medicaid to the working poor and supporting mandatory and increased minimum sentences for crime.

While campaigning for the judicial seat, she has pledged to ensure that “conservative values” are always represented in the judiciary, but she has stopped short of endorsing policy positions — which Mississippi judicial candidates are prohibited from doing. 

Branning declined an invitation to appear on Mississippi Today’s podcast. 

“Mississippians need and deserve Supreme Court justices that are constitutionally conservative in nature,” Branning said in a recent interview with radio station SuperTalk Mississippi. “And by that, I mean justices that simply follow the law. They do not add or take away.”

The two candidates have collectively raised around $187,00 and spent $182,00 during the final stretch of the campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Secretary of State’s office. 

Since she initially qualified in January, Branning has raised the most amount of money at $879,871, with $250,000 of that money coming from a loan she gave her campaign. She spent around $730,000 of that money. Several third party groups have supported her campaign. 

Kitchens has raised around $514,00 since he qualified for reelection. He’s spent roughly $436,000 of that money, and some of his top contributors have been trial attorneys. 

For the open Court of Appeals seat, Schloegel and St Pe, two influential names on the Gulf Coast, are working to turn out their voters in a close election. 

Schloegel is a Chancery Court judge in Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties. St. Pé  is an attorney in private practice, a municipal court judge in Gautier, and a city attorney for Moss Point. 

Schloegel has raised roughly $214,000 since she qualified, and has spent almost that same amount of money this election cycle. St. Pé has raised around $480,000 this year and spent approximately $438,067 during that timeframe. 

Whoever wins the race, it ensures that a woman will fill the open seat. After the election, half of the judges on the 10-member appellate court will be women, the most number of women who have served on the court at one time. 

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

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On this day in 1961

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-22 07:00:00

Nov. 22, 1961

Credit: Courtesy: Georgia Tourism & Travel

Five Black students, made up of NAACP Youth Council members and two SNCC volunteers from Albany State College, were arrested after entering the white waiting room of the Trailways station in Albany, Georgia. 

The council members bonded out of jail, but the SNCC volunteers, Bertha Gober and Blanton Hall declined bail and “chose to remain in jail over the holidays to dramatize their demand for justice,” according to SNCC Digital Gateway. The president of Albany State College expelled them. 

Gober became one of SNCC’s Freedom Singers and wrote the song, “We’ll Never Turn Back,” after the 1961 killing of Herbert Lee in Mississippi. The tune became SNCC’s anthem. 

After her release from jail, Gober joined other students, and police arrested her and other demonstrators. Back in the same jail, she sang to the police chief and mayor to open the cells, “I hear God’s children praying in jail, ‘Freedom, freedom, freedom.’” 

Albany State suspended another student, Bernice Reagon, after she joined SNCC. She poured herself into the civil rights movement and later formed the Grammy-nominated a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock to educate and empower the audience and community. 

“When I opened my mouth and began to sing, there was a force and power within myself I had never heard before,” a power she said she did not know she had. 

Other members of the Freedom Singers included Cordell Reagon, Bernice Johnson, Dorothy Vallis, Rutha Harris, Bernard Lafayette and Charles Neblett. On the third anniversary of the sit-in movement in 1963, they performed at Carnegie Hall. 

“This is a singing movement,” SNCC leader James Forman told a reporter. “The songs help. Without them, it would be ugly.” 

Today, the Albany Civil Rights Institute houses exhibits on these protesters, Martin Luther King Jr. and others who joined the Albany Movement.

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

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IHL deletes the word ‘diversity’ from its policies

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mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2024-11-21 14:32:00

The governing board of Mississippi’s public universities voted Thursday to delete the word “diversity” from several policies, including a requirement that the board evaluate university presidents on campus diversity outcomes.

Though the Legislature has not passed a bill targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in higher education, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees approved the changes “in order to ensure continued compliance with state and federal law,” according to the board book

The move comes on the heels of the re-election of former President Donald Trump and after several universities in Mississippi have renamed their diversity offices. Earlier this year, the IHL board approved changes to the University of Southern Mississippi’s mission and vision statements that removed the words “diverse” and “inclusiveness.”

In an email, John Sewell, IHL’s communications director, did not respond to several questions about the policy changes but wrote that the board’s goal was to “reinforce our commitment to ensuring students have access to the best education possible, supported by world-class faculty and staff.”

“The end goal is to support all students, and to make sure they graduate fully prepared to enter the workforce, hopefully in Mississippi,” Sewell added.

On Thursday, trustees approved the changes without discussion after a first reading by Harold Pizzetta, the associate commissioner for legal affairs and risk management. But Sewell wrote in an email that the board discussed the policy amendments in open session two months ago during its retreat in Meridian, more than an hour away from the board’s normal meeting location in Jackson.

IHL often uses these retreats, which unlike its regular board meetings aren’t livestreamed and are rarely attended by members of the public outside of the occasional reporter, to discuss potentially controversial policy changes.

Last year, the board had a spirited discussion about a policy change that would have increased its oversight of off-campus programs during its retreat at the White House Hotel in Biloxi. In 2022, during a retreat that also took place in Meridian, trustees discussed changing the board’s tenure policies. At both retreats, a Mississippi Today reporter was the only member of the public to witness the discussions.

The changes to IHL’s diversity policy echo a shift, particularly at colleges and universities in conservative states, from concepts like diversity in favor of “access” and “opportunity.” In higher education, the term “diversity, equity and inclusion” has traditionally referred to a range of efforts to comply with civil rights laws and foster a sense of on-campus belonging among minority populations.

But in recent years, conservative politicians have contended that DEI programs are wasteful spending and racist. A bill to ban state funding for DEI in Mississippi died earlier this year, but at least 10 other states have passed laws seeking to end or restrict such initiatives at state agencies, including publicly funded universities, according to ABC News.

In Mississippi, the word “diversity” first appeared in IHL’s policies in 1998. The diversity statement was adopted in 2005 and amended in 2013. 

The board’s vote on Thursday turned the diversity statement, which was deleted in its entirety, into a “statement on higher education access and success” according to the board book. 

“One of the strengths of Mississippi is the diversity of its people,” the diversity statement read. “This diversity enriches higher education and contributes to the capacity that our students develop for living in a multicultural and interdependent world.”

Significantly, the diversity statement required the IHL board to evaluate the university presidents and the higher learning commissioner on diversity outcomes. 

The statement also included system-wide goals — some of which it is unclear if the board has achieved — to increase the enrollment and graduation rates of minority students, employ more underrepresented faculty, staff and administrators, and increase the use of minority-owned contractors and vendors. 

Sewell did not respond to questions about if IHL has met those goals or if the board will continue to evaluate presidents on diversity outcomes.

In the new policy, those requirements were replaced with two paragraphs about the importance of respectful dialogue on campus and access to higher education for all Mississippians. 

“We encourage all members of the academic community to engage in respectful, meaningful discourse with the aim of promoting critical thinking in the pursuit of knowledge, a deeper understanding of the human condition, and the development of character,” the new policy reads. “All students should be supported in their educational journey through programming and services designed to have a positive effect on their individual academic performance, retention, and graduation.” 

Also excised was a policy that listed common characteristics of universities in Mississippi, including “a commitment to ethnic and gender diversity,” among others. Another policy on institutional scholarships was also edited to remove a clause that required such programs to “promote diversity.” 

“IHL is committed to higher education access and success among all populations to assist the state of Mississippi in meeting its enrollment and degree completion goals, as well as building a highly-skilled workforce,” the institutional scholarship policy now reads. 

The board also approved a change that requires the universities to review their institutional mission statements on an annual basis.

A policy on “planning principles” will continue to include the word “diverse,” and a policy that states the presidential search advisory committees will “be representative in terms of diversity” was left unchanged.

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

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