Mississippi Today
New legislative leadership: Nothing off table in tackling Mississippi health issues
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.ย
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 โ 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.ย
โI do think it could definitely be a historic year for the state of Mississippi,โ McGee said, โin that we have talked a lot about providing health care to low-income workers.โ
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 โ it’s health care coverage for low-income, working-class Mississippians.
โAnd we don’t really know what that’s going to look like right now,โ McGee said, โbut 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 โ whether their employers don’t offer it, or whether they simply can’t afford to purchase it.โ
McGee said she is also looking forward to reintroducing her presumptive eligibility bill โ 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.
โWe 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 โ and sometimes it can be beyond the first trimester,โ 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 โ which she says is her goal for the term.
โI just feel like it’s got a lot more momentum this year than it has in years past,โ she said.
Creekmore said he was surprised at his appointment to chair the Public Health Committee, and he did not ask for it โ though it was his first choice.
Creekmore, who comes from a family of health care workers, said health care has always been โnear and dearโ 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.
โHe’s a hometown doctor and he’s my hero,โ Creekmore said about his father.
Last year, Creekmore authored House Bill 1222 โ which provides mental health training for law enforcement and helps families dealing with the court systems. It passed unanimously.ย
โMy 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,โ Creekmore said. โI want to continue to do that, and I just thought I would be more effective in Public Health.โ
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, โwe’ll also probably have it added to the tech bill. It’s a serious issue for a lot of us on this side.โ
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 โ 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 โ 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 โ 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 โwomen have been helping women have babies since our primitive days.โ
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.
โAll it is is a paid relationship and it needs to go away,โ Blackwell said. โNurse 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?โ
Blackwell has filed similar bills in past years, but they all died in committee.
Like Blackwell in Medicaid, Hob Bryan, D-Amory โ the longest-serving state senator โ is continuing to chair Public Health.
Bryan said he is excited to be โon the horizon of a new four-year term,โ although, he joked, he might not make it that long โ 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 โI don’t think I’m the oldest one in this room, no offense Mr. Chairman, the life expectancy is 71,โ โ the lowest in the country.
โThese are real numbers that impact real Mississippians,โ Edney said. โWe 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.โ
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.ย
Diabetes, according to Bryan, is a โmaddening exampleโ 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.
โAt which point, congratulations!โ Bryan exclaimed. โNow you are disabled and you qualify for health care.โ
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
On this day in 1875
Nov. 2, 1875
The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from voting, resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the state.
A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black Mississippians had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to challenge Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state.
Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, including a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton.
The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan.
John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: โIt was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.โ
A federal grand jury concluded: โFraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi Todayโs NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi
High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.
In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.
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Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday lifeโwhether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.
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We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!
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This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hinds County loses fight over control of jail
The Hinds County sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.
Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, including a failure to protect detainees from harm.
However, the appeals court called the new injunction โoverly broadโ in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.
The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be removed.
The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as โfederal intrusion into RDC’s budgetโ โ especially if the receivership has no end date.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.ย
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which holds people facing trial.
โBut the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,โ the appeals court wrote.
This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022.
The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the solutions they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in Jackson.
The county had a chance to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the death of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old infrastructure and use of force.
Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.
But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff.
The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference.
Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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