There must be a discount on the cost of filing ballot initiative paperwork at the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office, because another one is lining up behind a recent proposal to expand early voting.
The newest one would enshrine Medicaid expansion in the state constitution, forcing state officials to accept a generous federal offer to provide medical care for lower-income workers who cannot afford private health insurance.
This initiative, according to Mississippi Today , has the support of a heavy hitter. The president of the Mississippi Hospital Association has set up a nonprofit organization to lead the effort, and on Friday his board of governors endorsed the upcoming signature drive.
MHA President Tim Moore told Mississippi Today that since the Republican leadership in Jackson is firmly against Medicaid expansion, advocates must take their case directly to the voters.
Frankly, given the state’s relatively low per-capita income, along with a below-average percentage of workers who have employer-based health insurance, Medicaid expansion should have a good chance of being approved if it gets on the ballot.
To put it another way, if voters approved last year’s medical marijuana initiative by a 3-to-1 margin, what’s to stop a majority from supporting health care for the working poor? The hospital association told Mississippi Today that polls say most voters, including up to 60% of Republicans, support expansion.
Most Republican leaders, including Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, say the state shouldn’t expand Medicaid because there’s no guarantee the federal government will keep up its generous 90% funding match, even though it would take an act of Congress to lower it. The main reason, though, they are so stubborn has little to do with what the future holds. It’s all about politics. The GOP leadership in Mississippi wants nothing to do with a welfare-style program whose creation and advocacy have been championed by Democrats in the White House.
One of those Democrats, President Joe Biden, and members of his party in Congress have provided Mississippi and the 11 other holdout states an extra incentive to get on board, increasing the federal share for the next two years on the existing Medicaid program. For Mississippi, that would mean an extra $300 million to $400 million a year, on top of the $1 billion annually it’s already being offered.
The hospital association is correct when it says that kind of cash could save the finances of hospitals in the state, which are getting crushed by the cost of free medical care. And more importantly, the money would provide care for people who have a job — who are trying to do right — but earn too much to qualify for other government-sponsored medical assistance.
Voters in at least two other GOP-dominated states, Oklahoma and Missouri, recently approved measures to expand Medicaid after lawmakers refused to do it. The plot has thickened in Missouri, where Republicans in the House specifically refused to put the extra funding in a budget bill — despite the new constitutional amendment.
It is a shame that it has come to this in Mississippi. Legislating a government program through constitutional amendment is not ideal. If adjustments later have to be made, it will be tougher to implement them, since presumably any changes would have to go back before the voters.
The legislative leadership and the last two governors, however, have given the citizens little choice. When people in power won’t do what is both compassionate and financially wise, it’s time to go around them.
