BREAKING: The Mississippi House just passed Medicaid expansion by a 96-20 vote.
That’s more than enough to overcome a veto from Gov. Tate Reeves.
It now heads to the Senate.
Background: https://t.co/exDyzFAcJX
— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) February 28, 2024
The Mississippi bill text requested that the state file a Section 1115 waiver to expand Medicaid with work requirements but if that waiver is not approved (and it won’t be), the bill had a fall back option of a pretty bog standard Medicaid Expansion.
Will Mississippi beat Alabama?
(Sorry for falling off the face of the Earth, the combination of dissertating and job hunting has been exhausting)
Fake Irishman
Wow. I feel like this has Kansas 2017 written all over it, but fingers crossed.
Baud
Whoa.
Yutsano
Wait…Mississippi?
THAT Mississippi?
The ultimate backwater racist as fuck gerrymandered Mississippi?
They must have gotten some sweet blow down there or something. Either way, congrats Nukular Biscuits!!!
Baud
Forget beating Alabama. Mississippi could beat Wisconsin.
UncleEbeneezer
Goddamn, Mississippi :)
scav
Hoo boy.
Fake Irishman
On the other hand, the rhetoric coming out of the legislative leaders mouths is pretty close to a list of proponents’ talking points. And if Mississippi can do it, well, I mean that’s going to make it really tough for other states to stay out.
It’s like if the UAW is able to unionize a major Mercedes plant in Alabama, or something.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Wisconsin doesn’t have
medicareMedicaid expansion?????rikyrah
Think this is related to the exposure of the corruption with the welfare funds
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Medicaid. And no. One of the few states outside the south without it.
ETA: WY and KS are the other two.
Fake Irishman
@Baud:
Sort of. Wisconsin had such a generous Medicaid program pre ACA that is was able to cut it back for some parents over the poverty line (who then qualified for the exchanges) and got all the adults under the poverty line on Medicaid. So it’s not really an expansion, but they did avoid the dreaded Medicaid gap.
But yes.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
With first Scott Walker as governor,
Then a Dem governor, but that gerrymandered to Hell GOP?
Of course, they haven’t gotten expansion
Baud
@Fake Irishman:
I didn’t know that. But in a way, that makes it worse that they are refusing free federal money.
narya
I hope it happens fast enough to help some hospitals stay open. and the FQHCs will benefit, too.
Mousebumples
Evers wants Medicaid expansion. The reactionary GOP state leg that takes lessons from McTurtle refuses to cover pregnant women for more than 60 days after pregnancy. (most states cover 12 months after childbirth)
Maybe next year, if we can flip the Assembly, the remaining GOP State Senators will negotiate to try to retain their seats after 2026.
We are not a red state. We are a very, very Gerrymandered* purple state.
*Until new maps have elected leaders, starting after November 2024 elections.
Fake Irishman
If Mississippi expands, who is the last state to expand? I’d bet on South Carolina, Alabama or Tennessee. Florida and Wyoming could conceivably pass it through direct democracy, and Wisconsin, Georgia and Texas are either politically competitive enough or drifting in that direction that it is becoming a real political possibility soon.
Fake Irishman
@Baud:
They take a bath on the poor Medicaid folks not in traditionally covered populations who don’t get federal matching funds, but they draw all the federal exchange subsidies which require no state match. So I suspect they lose out net, but it’s probably closer than we’d think at first glance.
Brachiator
I hope that this is real good news for Mississippi.
Fake Irishman
@rikyrah: There are states that have expanded by executive order, but Wisconsin requires the legislature.
rusty
David, good luck on completing and defending your dissertation and also on the job hunt. That is a lot to do simultaneously on top of having a family!! Best wishes and I hope the best for everything.
Fake Irishman
@Baud:
And Kansas has come so. Freaking. Close. To expanding. They couldn’t override a veto by two votes in 2017 and then they had a deal on the table in 2020, but time ran out in the session and it got blocked in line behind an unrelated bill that was some sort of anti-choice performance art.
David Anderson
@Fake Irishman: Sort of — Laura Dague has good work on how BadgerCare is neither fish nor fowl for the Medicaid Gap folks — better than not having anything but not as good as Expansion — plus it costs the state a shit ton more money than taking Expansion’s 90% Federal Share.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I’m not surprised this is happening. When enough hospitals close for rural white people and the legislatures run out of excuses for not doing something about it, the pressure starts to mount. Plus, the longer the time since Obama was in office, the more they can pretend like it has nothing to do with Barry HUSSAIN Obama and the EVIL Demonrats.
eclare
@Fake Irishman:
I live in TN, my money is on us. Due to extreme gerrymandering our state legislature has become much more RWNJ in the last ten or twelve years. MS has medical pot, forget that ever passing here.
CaseyL
Still has a ways to go: Senate must pass the bill, then Reeves will veto it, then the vote to override in both houses must succeed.
eclare
@eclare:
Also MS just landed some huge battery (IIRC) plant that is going to be built in a fairly rural area near Byhalia. As someone noted above, can’t do that with no hospitals or doctors.
Fake Irishman
@David Anderson: Ooh! I’ll have to read that piece, thanks for the cite.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Yeah, I knew that (Medicare vs. Medicaid) I just typed it wrong.
But I am shocked that WI doesn’t have it. Surely they will soon, hopefully after the November election
edit: written before seeing rikyrah and Mousebumples comments. I see that we are all thinking in the same direction.
Fake Irishman
@eclare:
And it’s not just gerrymanders: your state has gone GOP at the state level faster and more throughly than anywhere besides maybe West Virginia and Arkansas. Sorry!
Fake Irishman
@David Anderson:
Don’t you mean expansion’s *Dr. Evil voice* 100 percent share for the first five years?
bbleh
One trusts that in the next election or two, Mississippi’s voters will have the sense to drive out the remaining weak-kneed legislators who have surrendered to Washington and agreed to take huge amounts of money to improve the health of their constituents.
And OT, Judge to Trump on request to delay posting ~500 million bond: hahahahahano.
bbleh
@Fake Irishman: and WV still has the sense to take the damn money. (Maybe the mountain air provides a certain degree of clarity?) WV actually offers surprisingly generous health-care assistance. On top of still-decent public schools (local ones, anyway). Just never were true Confederates …
eclare
@Fake Irishman:
I am very aware.
trollhattan
@Yutsano: They see an opportunity to leapfrog ahead of Alabama. Now just what might be the cause of Alabama at risk of slipping to #50?
Leto
@eclare: @Fake Irishman: SC has landed huge national/international investments which have brought a fuck ton of jobs to both the Lowcountry and Up State. Here’s how they ranked in healthcare last year:
NC, SC, GA, LA, and MS all comprise #1-5 in worst healthcare in the nation. SC has continually said “Go fuck yourself” to it’s citizens, in education, healthcare, job creation, representative government… I can hope that they do some type of healthcare expansion, but they pride themselves on their
crueltystupiditytraditions.But this is very good news for MS. I really hope it helps.
Baud
@Leto:
I’m a little surprised about NC.
Fake Irishman
@bbleh:
When they took the expansion it was the last term of Democratic dominance in the state. Between 2010-2017 WV went from a Dem trifecta with supermajorities to the inverse. 2014 did most of the damage.
Fake Irishman
@Leto:
It’s the moonlight and Magnolias method of economic development. “Look low taxes, lax regulations and we’ll beat up any labor organizers who dare to show up, come relocate here!”
Baud
Supreme Court will take up Trump’s immunity.
TBone
Supremacists Court granted cert on immunity case. WTAF
TBone
Goddamnit CLARENCE!
hilts
@Baud:
FUCK SCOTUS!
Baud
@Fake Irishman:
Was any state more affected by black president syndrome?
trollhattan
@Baud: Should I warn the kid, who’s pondering doing a year of post-grad in NC? Bit of a hypochondriac, plus manages to actually get sick from time to time.
Baud
@hilts:
Well, they should issue a decision in July, which will let Biden know if he can go hog wild.
TBone
@hilts: 👍🤬
Baud
@trollhattan:
I don’t know. Talk to someone from there. Quality could be very regional.
TBone
It is not a slow news day. I can barely keep up. Mama said, but this is ridiculous. Most peculiar! 🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cuuhsqA95iA
trollhattan
@Baud: What if there were a front-pager familiar with the state? What if…?
Leto
@Baud: I feel like it’s the same as SC. There’s pockets of stuff here and there, but the rest of the state just absolutely drags it down. You have the Research Triangle, Asheville, the 3-4 major universities… but then not much else. Also the Republican control of the state for the past 20 years has accelerated that downward glide slope. Not saying it can’t be reversed, just like with everything else it’ll take work.
@Fake Irishman: exactly.
Leto
@Baud: 22 APR hearing date. Nothing like keeping things speedy… /sigh
HinTN
@Fake Irishman: We will be last. Hell, we’re flirting with being worse than Mississippi (goddamn) in education.
HinTN
@David Anderson: You don’t get/want to stay at Duke or you’re just looking outside academia?
HinTN
@eclare: Medical pot is more likely than expansion. They can tax those sales.
lowtechcyclist
It’s been thirty years since I was in that situation, but trust me, I haven’t forgotten.
Do the things you have to do, and take care of yourself. Pop in when you can, but don’t feel guilty if you go a long time between having the time and energy left over for posting here.
But thanks for sharing this quite surprising news from Mississippi, the state that seems to exist mostly to keep Alabama out of last place in all the rankings. This really will be a BFD for so many people in that state.
HinTN
@trollhattan: Post grad in the Triangle or Greensboro ought to be fine.
ETA – Allergies OTOH may be a bear.
David Anderson
@Fake Irishman: here is the link https://read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/article/47/3/293/288701/The-Line-between-Medicaid-and-Marketplace-Coverage
David Anderson
@trollhattan: The Triangle and Charlotte Metro are high density urban environments with all of the normal amenities of 2nd tier US urban clusters (1st tier So Cal/Chicago, BOS-WAS). The Triad (Winston-Salem/Greensboro) have a good mix of a 3rd tier urban agglomeration
Given that is where most of the post grad opportunities are, its great with exceptional BBQ.
David Anderson
@HinTN: Bit of both — what Duke was looking for in health policy this cycle is not what I like to do — the people and environment here are great but my research has always been a bit of an off fit here.
VFX Lurker
Fingers crossed for Mississippi. I want them to have Medicaid expansion.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Hey I know, he could mow down the RWNJ SCROTUS Six, and he’d be legally free and clear – and could get their replacements through the Senate this year too!
Actually, I’m waiting to see how the SCROTUS Six figure out how to design immunity in a way that it applies to TFG but Biden can’t make use of it. I’m all too sure they’ll figure out something.
Anonymous At Work
All about that secondary option, but I imagine Tate will take his Effing Sweet time with the 1115 waiver request. Gotta proof-read every word at least twice. Make Kansas’s expansion look like 100-meters at the Olympics.
trollhattan
@David Anderson:
Merci!
She may well find herself studying and running at Wake Forest. Am not actually “concerned” but I also have 22 years observing her spin herself up over this and that. And we won’t be a 2-hour drive distant.
This parent thing is huuurd.