Editor, Commonwealth:
How many poor, hardworking Mississippians must suffer and die unnecessarily because Gov. Tate Reeves and the spineless Republican members of our Legislature refuse to expand Medicaid, even though they themselves have state-sponsored health insurance? It is shameful and reeks of hypocrisy.
And now their failure to do so is threatening to close dozens of our rural hospitals. This is negligent governance to the highest degree. Multiple studies have shown what a tremendous benefit doing so would be for our state.
Our state coffer currently has over a billion dollars that could be used to begin the expansion, giving 250,000 Mississippians medical coverage. In the years since the Affordable Care Act was passed, Mississippi has lost 14.5 billion federal dollars because of the obstinacy of these same politicians.
And yet Governor Reeves and our Legislature happily doled out $250 million in corporate welfare last year for an aluminum plant in Columbus with the expectation of creating an eventual 1,000 jobs. If you do the math and if those jobs transpire, they will each cost $250,000.
If instead they had expanded Medicaid, the state would have received one billion federal dollars and produced an estimated 20,000 jobs.
Only a fool would have chosen the former; and yet they did!
Is there any remaining doubt why Mississippi continues to be the poorest, most unhealthy, least educated state in the nation?
Mississippians this year have an opportunity to change all of this. The members of the Legislature as well as the lieutenant governor and governor are up for re-election. Now is the time to let them know that we need and want Medicaid expansion.
People who want to run for office to replace these politicians have until Feb. 1 to register.
Camille Wright
Brandon
