JACKSON — The major roadblock to Medicaid expansion in the Mississippi Legislature is Speaker of the House Philip Gunn.
The speaker has said he bases his position on two things — potential costs to Mississippi taxpayers and his personal aversion to expansive government.
“All it takes is the federal government deciding they’re not going to pay for it anymore and then it falls on the backs of the Mississippi taxpayer,” Gunn said on the Paul Gallo radio show.
“I’ve always maintained, to the extent that we can, decreased government dependency should be the goal,” he added. “Expansion in my view is going in the opposite direction.”
With 38 states having expanded Medicaid, there is little chance the federal government will back out — about as likely as backing out of farm subsidies. The state economist and others have shown expanding Medicaid would more than pay for itself. Plus hospitals have offered a way for them to provide insurance and cover expansion costs. So, the cost concern has been pretty well debunked.
That leaves Gunn’s personal political beliefs as the apparently insurmountable barrier. Now, the speaker is no dummy, but that position is nonsensical for a Mississippi leader.
First, Mississippi and its people have been going in the opposite direction so long we are addicted to federal money and there is no turning back. The speaker well knows state government depends on federal dollars. He appropriates billions every year. He also knows how much businesses and individuals depend upon farm subsidies and price supports, transportation grants, defense establishments and contracts, Department of Labor funds and grants, Title I and Title III education grants, Pell grants, university research grants, SNAP, TANF, federal unemployment insurance, community development block grants, EDA grants and low-interest loans, USDA Rural Development grants and loans, ARC and DRA grants, Earned Income Tax Credits, Child Care Tax Credits, Social Security, and innumerable other programs.
Plus, approximately 53% of Mississippians already get government-funded or government-subsidized health insurance through Medicaid, Medicare, ACA marketplace subsidies, the military, and government employment. Only about 33% of Mississippians get coverage from private sector employers. A few thousand buy non-subsidized policies directly from insurance companies.
That leaves 14%, primarily the working poor who cannot afford insurance.
Second, the speaker should realize, as former Ohio Gov. John Kasich did, that taking care of the poor is a core conservative value, one supported by Ronald Reagan, who approved legislation adding poor children and pregnant women to Medicaid in 1986.
Third, the federal government already did the expanding to cover the working poor.
The speaker may not like our heavy dependency on the federal government, but standing tall for his personal political beliefs on the backs of the hard-working poor is just blowing against the wind. He should adopt Kasich’s view — “It is in the conservative tradition to make sure we help people get on their feet so they then are not dependent.”
Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord. — Proverbs 19:17
- Bill Crawford is a Republican former state lawmaker from Jackson.
