Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Waller, Jr. speaks with the Clarion Ledger about health care and Medicaid in Mississippi.
Sarah Warnock, Clarion Ledger
The Clarion Ledger recently met with major candidates for governor on multiple issues, including Medicaid and health care. Each candidate was asked about the same issues. (Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves has agreed to an interview later this month, and will be included in the series then.)
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Waller Jr. said he backs a Medicaid expansion plan proposed by Mississippi’s hospitals. The plan would be paid for with federal money, user fees and contributions from hospitals.
“I think that’s a good starting point,” the former state Supreme Court chief justice said recently.
“With our situation now, with 31 hospitals on the danger list (of closing), access to health care is an absolute necessity,” he said.
The Medicaid “reform” proposal from the Mississippi Hospital Association, called Mississippi Cares, could extend coverage to about 300,000 low-income Mississippians. It would tap roughly $1 billion annually in federal funds. And the state would pay its share with fees levied on patients, and contributions from hospitals, not state taxpayers.
The Affordable Care Act allowed states to cover more residents under Medicaid starting five years ago. But the law, pushed by President Barack Obama, remains unpopular among many Republicans, and Mississippi is one of 14 states that have declined to accept billions of dollars of federal money for expansion.
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A frequent concern centers around whether Mississippi can afford to cover its share of expansion costs. But without expansion, many Mississippians are going without health insurance, and hospitals are forced to cover more uncompensated costs. This has put many rural hospitals in financial peril.
“It has many of the features (former Indiana Gov. Mike) Pence’s Healthy Indiana has in it,” Waller, 67, said of the hospital plan. “Conservative principles, for instance, a small policy payment of $20 a month. Co-pays. Deductibles. But it brings in the people we really need to uplift and energize — and that’s the part-time workers, the seasonable workers, the restaurant workers” who can’t afford health insurance otherwise.
More: Mississippi hospitals have a Medicaid expansion plan they believe Republicans can get behind
More: No, they’re not crazy. But they did just buy a bankrupt hospital in rural Mississippi.
More: Is your hospital on this list? 31 Mississippi hospitals at risk of closing, report says
Contact Luke Ramseth at 601-961-7050 or [email protected]. Follow @lramseth on Twitter.
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