For the fourth time in two years, the Republican-led Mississippi Senate voted to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to mothers from 60 days to one year.
Supporters, including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, call the move a “pro-life” effort to deal with the state’s new abortion ban and long-running high rates of death for infants and mothers.
It heads now to the House, where Republican Speaker Philip Gunn killed the measures without a vote last year, and where a similar House bill this year died in committee without a vote. But a recent survey of lawmakers by Mississippi Today shows a majority of House members said they support extending the coverage, as 28 other states have done and eight others are considering.
There was no debate Tuesday on Senate Bill 2212, which the Senate passed 40 to 11.
“This is the same exact bill we passed last session 45-5,” said Senate Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven.
Seven Republican senators who voted either “yea” or did not vote last year voted “no” on Tuesday: Sens. Michael McClendon of Hernando, Benjamin Suber of Bruce, Chris Caughman of Mendenhall, Neil Whaley of Potts Camp, Philip Moran of Kiln, and Mike Seymour of Vancleave.
The other “no” votes on Tuesday were also “no” votes last year: Sens. Jenifer Branning of Philadelphia, Kathy Chism of New Albany, Angela Burks Hills of Picuyune, Melanie Sojourner of Natchez and Chris McDaniel of Ellisville.
On the floor Tuesday, Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton, to amend the bill to include broader Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor per the federal Affordable Care Act. Mississippi is one of 11 GOP-led states to refuse to accept federal money to expand the state-federal health program. Although Hosemann and a growing number of Republican lawmakers say they are at least open to expansion, Gunn, Gov. Tate Reeves and many other Republicans remain opposed.
After Blackwell warned colleagues that if they voted for Blackmon’s expansion amendment, “you in essence have killed this (postpartum) bill,” the amendment died with a 15-36 vote.
In Mississippi, with high rates of poverty and uninsured people, about 65% of babies are born to mothers on Medicaid. Because of lag times in being approved for coverage and the current 60-day cutoff, mothers often do not receive the prenatal and postpartum care they need — care that could prevent many major problems, many doctors and experts have testified to lawmakers.
The cost of extending the postpartum coverage is estimated at $6 million to $7 million per year. Many medical officials and advocates have told lawmakers extending the coverage would likely produce a net savings for the state by preventing dire medical conditions later from lack of treatment.
Blackwell, at a recent hearing on the issue, said: “The relatively minimal amount to provide this care compared to the cost later — it’s a no-brainer in my mind.”
But opponents of extending postpartum coverage — most of whom lump it in with broader Medicaid expansion — often criticize it as socialized medicine or welfare.
In his Jan. 30 State of the State address, Gov. Reeves urged lawmakers: “Don’t simply cave under the pressure of Democrats and their allies in the media who are pushing for the expansion of Obamacare, welfare, and socialized medicine … You have my word that if you stand up to the left’s push for endless government-run healthcare, I will stand with you.”
The state Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would place the long-term control of Jackson’s water, wastewater and storm water systems under a nonprofit-led regional authority.
Under Senate Bill 2889, the majority of the board leading the nonprofit would be appointed by state leaders: three members from the governor, two from the lieutenant governor, and four from Jackson’s mayor. The board would then appoint a president of the authority, who would take charge of daily tasks and hiring personnel.
The new structure would take effect once the city’s federally appointed water manager, Ted Henifin, is no longer in his role. The federal judge who appointed Henifin left the timeline for that transition open-ended, only requiring Henifin to remain in Jackson until the city can maintain the water system on its own. Henifin suggested recently he would need at least five years to complete his duties.
The bill’s author, Sen. David Parker, a Republican who lives about 200 miles north of Jackson in Olive Branch, said that while the city’s water troubles have been a “black eye for Jackson, it’s also been a problem for the state as a whole.”
Despite the proposed structure in the bill, Parker refused to characterize the bill as taking control of the water system away from Jackson.
Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch Credit: Gil Ford Photography
Citing the bill, Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, read, “‘The utility authority shall assume ownership, management, and control’ … so this is a taking, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I don’t consider it a taking,” Parker responded.
“Then what would you call it?” Horhn asked.
“I would say it’s a change of the structure to allow governance to move in a more people-friendly direction for generations to come,” Sen. Parker said.
“Who owns the asset right now?” Horhn asked.
“The city of Jackson owns (it),” Parker responded.
“And who will own the asset if this bill becomes law?” Horhn asked.
“The regional utility authority shall own the assets,” Parker said.
“It’s a taking,” Horhn responded, “It’s the same principal that we debated seven or eight years ago with the Jackson airport.”
As part of the changes he recently made to the bill, Parker said he combined his initial idea of a regional authority with the idea of a corporate nonprofit, which Henifin had raised in his recently submitted financial plan for the water system. The senator admitted, though, that he hasn’t yet discussed the bill with Henifin.
Henifin’s responsibility includes recommending a future governance structure for the water system. In his financial plan, Henifin didn’t propose any single option, but listed a nonprofit as the only option without any potential downsides. A key difference between his idea and SB 2889, though, is that Jackson wouldn’t lose ownership of the assets included in the drinking water system in Henifin’s proposal.
He wrote that keeping the system in the city’s control would mean limitations with procuring contracts, as well as a potential shift in priorities after each election.
The new version of SB 2889 also removed the requirement that the Jackson mayor would have to consult with the mayors of neighboring cities, Byram and Ridgeland, for two of his appointments, and shifted that requirement to the governor and lieutenant governor’s appointments. Jackson sends drinking water to Byram, and also handles some of Ridgeland’s wastewater.
Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson Credit: Gil Ford Photography
The Senate approved the bill, 34-15, and the legislation now moves to the House. Senators also amended the bill with a reverse repealer, meaning that is has to come back through their chamber before going to the governor’s desk for final approval.
Horhn warned that lawmakers should consider what it would mean to take on the legal liability for the city’s water and wastewater systems, both of which are under federal consent orders. The city is also facing multiple civil lawsuits over drinking water issues. He said that lawmakers considered placing Jackson’s water under a regional authority last year, but backed away for that very reason.
“I wonder if we would even be here right now if the federal government didn’t give us $800 million,” Horhn said, referencing a recent historic investment of federal funds into Jackson’s water system.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba last week criticized SB 2889 and other pending bills that would interfere with the city’s water and judicial systems.
After Public Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees voted to require an additional $345 million annually from state and local governmental entities to fund the pension plan for their current and former employees, lawmakers are considering changes to the system’s authority.
The PERS board voted in December to increase the employer contribution rate, which is paid by state governmental agencies, school districts, county and city governmental entities. The current government contribution is 17.4% of the employees’ paycheck. The board voted to increase the rate to 22.4%.
Ron Higgins, PERS executive director, said the increase is needed to ensure the system is properly funded long-term.
The increase means state agencies will have to provide an additional $265 million toward their employees’ retirement, and local governmental entities will have to provide the rest. If more money is not appropriated by the Legislature to pay for the increase, the state agencies, university and community colleges and local school districts will have to make cuts in other areas so they can meet the mandate of the PERS Board. Local governmental entities also are required to provide the funds for the increase. Under current law, the Legislature cannot prevent the employer increase from going into effect.
A bill is pending in the Legislature, though — House Bill 605 — that could be used to give the Legislature final authority over whether to enact such an increase. Legislators have expressed frustration this year with the PERS board’s decision to increase the employer contribution rate.
When asked if he planned to bring the bill up for consideration before the full chamber, House Appropriations Chair John Read, R-Gautier, said, “All I can say is the bill is on the calendar. It is out there. It might need some more research.”
During a recent meeting, Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he understands the need to ensure the pension plan is properly funded, but also expressed concern that the actions of the PERS Board have “a direct impact on the state agencies and programs and opportunities for other people to have jobs and salaries and not get laid off and have cuts in a number of areas.”
Higgins, the executive director of PERS, said, “We just have to make sure it is fiduciary (and) that the system is funded property.” Higgins said the board postponed recommendations of its financial experts to increase the rates in earlier years because of the impact it would have on state and local budgets.
But he said under state law, the only option the board has to correct any funding deficiencies is to increase the employer contribution rate. It would take the Legislature changing the law to allow the board to increase the employee contribution rate or to change the level of benefits. The Legislature has the authority to take such action.
Higgins said more than 300,000 people are members of the system, meaning they are current retirees receiving benefits or are eligible to receive benefits in future years because of their public service. He said the average retiree receives an annual benefit of $26,000.
The planned increase in the employer benefit, which is not slated to go into effect until October, comes on the heels of a year when the system lost more than 8% on its investments. The board postponed recommended increases in the employer contribution rate the past two years in part because of investment earnings of 32.71% in 2020.
But Higgins said the rate increase is not because of investment earnings for any one year. He said it is being enacted because of the long-term prognosis for the system.
The system’s current full-funding ratio is about 61%, meaning it has the assets to pay the benefits of 61% of all the people in the system, ranging from the newest hires to those already retired. It is recommended that a state retirement system has a funding ratio of about 80%.
Hopson pointed out that the Mississippi Public Employee Retirement System employer contribution rate and the rate paid by employees (9% of their paycheck) is among the highest in the country. Higgins agreed, saying the national rate for employees in similar plans is about 6% of their paychecks, and for employers about 15%. The employer rate in Mississippi is currently 17.4%.
Lawmakers questioned whether the board is hiring competent experts to oversee the system and to make investments.
Higgins responded the system’s investment earnings are comparable to those in other states.
But he said the system is stressed by the fact that additional benefits were added for employers in the late 1990s and early 2000s without a method to pay for those benefits.
In addition, the current governmental workforce is shrinking while the number of retirees in the system is growing. Higgins said during the past 10 years, the governmental workforce is down by about 10%, while the number of retirees has increased by more than 25%.
“Every time we take a public service at the state or local level that was performed by a PERS contributing employee and privatize and give it to a someone who is not contributing, that ratio gets more out of whack,” said Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson.
Higgins said the board could provide recommendations on how to reduce the cost to the system. In the past some legislators have talked about temporarily suspending or altering the annual automatic 3% cost of living increase. But outcry from retirees who represent about 10% of the state’s population has stymied those efforts.
Higgins said another option would be to change the benefits for new hires. While that would help long term, Higgins said it would not be an immediate fix.
Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Brookhaven, asked if the board had made any recommendations for the 2023 Legislature to consider. Higgins said it has not, but added it is his understanding that there is not an appetite to address the issue during an election year. But he said the board could provide recommendation.
Black school teacher Gladys Noel Bates sued for equal pay because she earned only half of what her white counterparts earned in Mississippi.
Encouraged by her father, Andrew J. Noel, who was active in the NAACP and Progressive Voters’ League, she joined the NAACP Youth Council. After teaching at Smith Robertson Junior High School, she asked the Jackson School Board to quit discriminating against Black teachers.
The board denied discrimination, and she responded by filing a lawsuit, aided in part by the NAACP’s Constance Baker Motley. “I may sound immodest,” she recalled later, “but it was time for someone to do something.”
In the wake of her lawsuit, people fired shots into their home, tried to torch the home and left burning crosses. She and her husband also lost their jobs, and R. Jess Brown, an automotive science and technology teacher at Lanier High School, took her place in the lawsuit. In the end, the court dismissed the lawsuit, but the judge noted that racial discrimination was indeed responsible for the inequity of the salaries for black and white teachers. After being barred from teaching elsewhere in the state, Tougaloo College, a private college that served as a stronghold for civil rights activities, welcomed her.
The couple eventually moved to Denver, where both were hired as teachers. Although the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case four years later, the fight proved worthwhile. Mississippi began paying Black teachers more. In 1996, the city of Denver held a day in Bates’ honor. She died in 2010, and a Jackson school is now named after her.
Shortly after moving to Madison, Jamie Bardwell learned that the Madison County School District requires parents to opt out in writing from corporal punishment being used on their children, a fact she discovered from other students talking about it in her son’s class.
“A kid got paddled, came back and told my son, and my son was terrified,” she said. “I explained to him that that would never happen to him, we’ve written this letter, but it’s really scary for kids to have people in their classroom come back with these stories. Even if your kid isn’t the one who is subjected to corporal punishment, they’re still being impacted by it.”
The Madison County School District told Mississippi Today that corporal punishment is an option in the district, and that parents are always consulted before it is administered.
The U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights tracks corporal punishment data in public schools nationally, which is generally defined as the use of physical force to discipline students. Often called paddling, the term stems from using a wooden paddle to hit a student on the butt.
Federal data shows that over the last decade, Mississippi had more corporal punishment incidents than any other state for every year data was collected. In the 2017-18 school year, the most recent year for which there is federal data, nearly 30% of all incidents occurred in Mississippi. In the same year, 22 states reported at least one incident of corporal punishment and 10 reported over 1,000 instances.
The Mississippi Department of Education has more recent data, also for public schools. Instances of corporal punishment fell by over 23,000 from the 2016-17 school year to the 2021-22 school year. School leaders attributed this to a combined influence of the pandemic and a 2019 state law which banned the use of corporal punishment on a student with a special education classification.
Some districts began the work of rethinking discipline models before the 2019 law passed.
William Murphy, director of student affairs for the Sunflower County Consolidated School District, said the district’s process of veering away from corporal punishment started in 2016 with restorative justice trainings, a practice that seeks to repair harm caused rather than focus on punishment. When the 2019 law passed, Murphy said multiple administrators told him they rarely utilized it anyway “just because of the lack of effect that it was having.”
He acknowledged that the decline, from 400 incidents in 2016 to 22 in 2022, was impacted by the pandemic and students not being physically in school. However, he said he doesn’t expect to see a return because of the emphasis the pandemic put on social-emotional learning.
“The pandemic allowed us to see into some children’s homes, to see some things that we might have not been privy to before,” Murphy said.
“When you’re having to do more home visits or get closer acclimated to students at home, you learn some things that I think will make you less likely to use corporal punishment,” he continued. “When you learn that a child might have been abused or that a home situation is particularly traumatic, I just think there’s a push to do more counseling, more talking.”
In the Scott County School District, Assistant Superintendent Chad Harrison said the district’s decline in corporal punishment was strongly linked to the 2019 law going into effect. Concerned that a teacher would mistakenly administer corporal punishment to a special education student, the district changed its policy so that it can only be used by administrators or administrative assistants. The district went from nearly 1,800 incidents in 2016 to 532 in 2022.
Harrison also said that the district has focused more energy on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, a framework which seeks to reward students for positive behavior rather than penalize them for negative.
Valeria Wilson shows off the treasure chest of toys that she brings to schools for meetings with students. Wilson is a behavior specialist for the Scott County School District. Thursday, February 2, 2023. Credit: Julia James/Mississippi Today
Valeria Wilson, the behavior specialist for the district, explained the shift includes both creating a culture of rewards for all students and developing individualized plans for students who are struggling with behavior problems.
At every school, teachers, cafeteria workers, janitors, and front desk employees all have “bucks” that they can give students to reward behaviors like being respectful or paying attention. Students use the bucks to buy snacks or gain entry to celebrations throughout the year.
Valeria Wilson shows the "bucks" that students can earn for positive classroom behavior. Wilson is a behavior specialist for the Scott County School District. Thursday, February 2, 2023. Credit: Julia James/Mississippi Today
When students are put on a behavior plan, Wilson works with the student and a committee to develop daily goals and rewards if the student meets them. As a part of the plan, an adult checks in with the student daily to discuss their behavior and provide instant feedback.
“It’s just simply making them aware of their actions,” Wilson said.
Wilson also said that students are involved in the process of selecting their rewards in order to better motivate them.
“You have to find out what the interests of that kid are, and you can only do that by building relationships with them, and then you build your plan around that student,” she said.
Despite the shifts toward other discipline models that some districts are making, advocates are concerned that corporal punishment numbers will tick back up.
Ellen Reddy, executive director of the Nollie Jenkins Family Center in Holmes County, said she believes the pandemic accounts for some of the decline, but is also concerned districts are not being monitored properly.
The Nollie Jenkins Family Center released a report in 2021 highlighting significant disparities in corporal punishment reporting data between the Mississippi Department of Education and the federal government. Jean Cook, communications director for the Mississippi Department of Education, said MDE could not explain these differences, but that districts are not required to respond to any data quality questions from the federal government. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education did not respond to questions regarding their validation process.
When asked how MDE verifies its own data, Cook said districts are required by state law to report accurate information to the state’s data management system and, in doing so, verify their monthly data reports before submitting them to the department. The department does not independently verify this data after it is received unless a complaint is filed.
When talking about the decline of this practice in Mississippi, Reddy and her associates expressed concern about the demographic profile of the students who are still receiving corporal punishment, as national research has shown corporal punishment is disproportionately used on Black students.
“Any student that experiences it is one student too many, so who’s still left in that category, what do they look like, and why are they still experiencing it?” asked Chanya Anderson, a data analysis consultant working with the Nollie Jenkins Family Center. “Because if you’re talking about such a drastic decline, what is it about those students that you still feel the need to use corporal punishment if your model has now shifted to something else?”
MDE data shows that for the 2021-22 school year, nearly 60% of corporal punishment instances were administered to Black students, while 35% happened to white students. For the same school year, 47% of K-12 students were Black and 43% were white.
Anderson also said that laws temporarily put a damper on certain practices, which could explain the decline in corporal punishment incidents.
“When you enact any law, even if laws don’t affect all populations … that’s still going to bring attention to the plight of corporal punishment generally,” Anderson said. “In light of laws, you will often see institutions pull back momentarily, and then as people forget about it and move on, they’ll start to increase their usage of it again once the spotlight has moved off the topic.”
This legislative session, Rep. Carl Mickens, D-Brooksville, introduced a bill to ban corporal punishment but it died, as have his previous efforts for the last five years. Mickens said he doesn’t think the practice “will cause a child to learn, I think it might cause them not to want to learn.” Though he disagrees with the practice, he said ultimately only legislative leadership has the power to decide if a bill progresses.
Rep. Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, chair of the House Education Committee, said he has not taken up the bills to ban it because he believes corporal punishment is a local issue. He said he has not looked at research on how it impacts children.
Studies have shown that corporal punishment can lead students to be more aggressive, have higher rates of depression, and perform worse in school. Morgan Craven, federal policy director for the Intercultural Development Research Association, said it’s telling that so many groups have lined up in opposition, including psychiatrists, pediatricians, lawyers, public health officials, school counselors and educators.
“Not only is it ineffective, but it can actually make issues worse,” Craven said. “Whatever it is that is leading to a particular behavior, it is not solved by hitting a kid.”
Francine Jefferson, who was a board member of the former Holmes County School District, advocated to end corporal punishment when she was on the board from 2010-2018. While she did not achieve a complete ban, the board did change policies to restrict the practice, including allowing parents to opt out.
“I grew up in that environment where teachers are allowed to paddle the kids. I mean, hell, the bus drivers could paddle you, everybody could paddle you,” Jefferson, who also grew up in the district, said. “I grew up with that experience, and it wasn’t a pleasant one … That’s why I pushed so much for it because I never forgot that experience.”
The district later banned the practice entirely in 2018 after consolidation, but Jefferson said she is still concerned about it happening in Holmes County and other parts of the state.
“How many pounds of pressure do you put on a child’s bottom?” she said. “What’s the right amount? Nobody knows. If you can’t tell me that, then I don’t think you need to do it because you can’t take it back.”
Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, is hoping to bring more accountability over Jackson’s ongoing pollution of the Pearl River through the city’s failing wastewater system, despite a federal agency already enforcing the issue through a consent decree.
House Bill 1094, which passed through its House committee last Tuesday, would fine the capital city up to $1 million for each “improper disposal” of wastewater or sewage into the river.
Currie said a consent decree being enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency and Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality since 2012 is not doing enough to protect the Pearl River from Jackson’s pollution. The fines that could result from HB 1094, she explained, would go to help clean up the river in the areas of the state downstream from Jackson.
Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven. Credit: Rogelio V. Solis, AP
“When you dump raw sewage in (the Pearl River) for other counties to worry about, it’s disgusting,” said Currie, who’s district includes towns, such as Monticello, bordering the river downstream of Jackson. “When you go down the Pearl River, you can see toilet paper hanging off little branches.”
Currie said that the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality told her that the agency hasn’t yet fined Jackson for such discharges, but an MDEQ spokesperson clarified that it hasn’t issued a fine since the 2012 federal consent decree.
The agency has collected nearly half a million dollars in fines over the city’s wastewater issues, which includes a $240,000 penalty assessed in 2010 for violations at Jackson’s Savanna Street plant, and a $175,000 fine issued as a result of the 2012 order.
The consent agreement gave Jackson about 18 years to make a list of fixes with its wastewater system, but required most of those fixes to be done within 11 years, or by November this year. Citing a lack of funding and staffing, the city hasn’t completed many of the required fixes, and is now attempting to renegotiate the settlement with the EPA.
The Pearl River looking north from U.S. 80 on Apr. 15, 2021. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Currie didn’t speak to how this bill would impact the EPA’s dealing of the issue, saying only that whatever enforcement is happening is not enough.
“(The EPA) is obviously not on top of it if (the pollution) continues to happen,” she said. “How many years has this gone on? So everybody downstream should just pay the price for Jackson not tending to their business?”
Currie called the Pearl River important for the “way of life” of communities downstream of Jackson, with Mississippians using the river to swim, canoe and catch fish. She said that polluting the river is harmful in a number of ways, affecting oysters on the Coast as well as businesses that use the water such as Georgia Pacific, although the latter of which is itself a top polluter in Mississippi. Over the last five years, Georgia Pacific pulp mill on the Leaf River has been among the facilities with the most toxic releases in the state with 15.7 million pounds.
When asked about HB 1094, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said he questioned the legality of “a number of things being suggested,” and that there is an “order to these things” being led by the EPA. The mayor added that lawmakers this session are looking to punish Jackson in a number of ways.
“We are clearly the object of the state House’s affection,” Lumumba said Monday during a press conference. “I think that they’re just more ways contemplated to be increasingly punitive of the city of Jackson. Let’s call a spade a spade.”
In its latest annual report last spring, Jackson reported 13 prohibited bypasses, or times when the city allowed untreated or partially treated wastewater into the river, usually because of too much water entering the plant at one time. Those bypasses totaled 2.1 billion gallons between March 2021 and February 2022, a 30% decrease from the previous year.
The city also reported over 500 sanitary sewer overflows from its collection system in that time, or more than one every day. Those overflows are when untreated sewage leaks out of the system, and the city said most of its overflows that year happened because of either grease blockages or collapsed pipes.
Since 2019, MDEQ has cautioned residents against activities such as swimming, wading or fishing in the segment of the Pearl River neighboring Jackson. The agency later updated the advisory to include streams, such as Hanging Moss Creek and Eubanks Creek, that flow through the city.
The federal consent decree says the city is subject to fines for additional Clean Water Act violations, including a $10,000 penalty for each prohibited bypass and a $2,000 penalty for each sanitary sewer overflow.
The Pearl River looking west from the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge, south of downtown Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
“Historically, EPA has taken the lead on enforcements under all federal consent decrees, and in any event, MDEQ, because we are co-plaintiffs with EPA, cannot take unilateral action to collect the stipulated penalties,” MDEQ spokesperson Jan Schaefer told Mississippi Today. “In the meantime, MDEQ, along with EPA, has been ‘assessing’ stipulated penalties and those stipulated penalties continue to accrue.”
Neither agency could say how much Jackson has accrued in penalties since the 2012 order before this story published.
Jackson, Meridian, Hattiesburg and Greenville are all under a federal consent decree because of wastewater violations. While those cities are starting to see support through historic new federal infrastructure funds, leaders of those cities told Mississippi Today last year that more money is needed to make all the necessary repairs.
Note: This editorial anchored Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive access to legislative analyses and up-to-date information about what’s happening under the Capitol dome.
You almost certainly heard about the bombshell story former University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones told at a press conference last week.
Jones said that Gov. Tate Reeves, Mississippi’s most staunch public opponent of Medicaid expansion, acknowledged to Jones in a private meeting several years ago the benefits of expansion. The governor, Jones recalled, then said he couldn’t champion it publicly because of “my personal political interest.”
Reeves, as he often does when challenged, got nasty. He said Jones was lying and referred to Jones only as “this dude.” You know, the longtime Baptist medical missionary and deacon. The six-year chief of the state’s flagship university. The years-long leader of the state’s largest hospital and dean of the state’s only medical school. The one-time national president of the American Heart Association. Just “this dude.”
As Jones spoke last week, a crowd of curious lobbyists — including a couple of Reeves’ former staffers — gathered in the rotunda to hear what he had to say. Jones, in less than five minutes, did what so many people under the dome have never dared: he called Tate Reeves out. While doing so, he laid out a succinct case for Medicaid expansion that the governor himself couldn’t ignore.
And Reeves’ hot-headed response to the whole thing may be all we need to know about how tough an issue it will be for him during the critical 2023 election year.
First, some scene setting: State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney warned lawmakers in late 2022 that 38 hospitals across the state are in danger of closing in the short term, and every hospital in the state faces unprecedented financial concerns.
A hospital funding solution that 39 other states — including many Republican-led states — have embraced is Medicaid expansion. Economists estimate Mississippi would receive more than $1 billion per year in new revenue from expansion, and hospitals and hundreds of thousands of Mississippians would benefit directly.
Democratic legislative leaders organized the Thursday press conference to lambast Republicans for doing little to address the state’s hospital crisis. As a guest speaker, Jones was cast perfectly. He retired last year from a faculty position at University of Mississippi Medical Center after a decades-long career in medicine. He’s spent much of his career researching the impact of chronic health problems like hypertension, cardiovascular issues, and obesity on Mississippians. Years after leading the state’s largest hospital, he currently sits on the board of directors for the hospital in his hometown Hazlehurst. Needless to say, he knows a thing or two about the state’s health care system.
Some have questioned the timing of Jones’ press conference appearance. The first words out of his mouth that day should answer that question: “Believe me, the crisis is real. I’ve been involved in health care in Mississippi for more than 40 years. In those 40 years, I’ve never seen our health care system under such stress as it is now. It’s time for action to be taken.”
What got lost in the initial reporting that rightfully focused on the rare poking of the bear in the Governor’s Mansion was perhaps one of the most succinct cases for Medicaid expansion ever made in Jackson.
“First and most important is the moral imperative. Shame on us, shame on us for allowing the citizens of Mississippi to have health care problems and not have access to health care solutions. Shame on us. In the richest country in the world, in a state with millions and billions in its coffers, for us not to act on this and make health care available to all of our citizens in our state is immoral. It is immoral. It is time to act.
The second imperative is the economic imperative. In the 38 states that have expanded Medicaid, it’s been proven over and over again: states don’t lose money when they expand Medicaid, states gain money when they expand Medicaid. In an analysis of what would happen in Mississippi if Medicaid is expanded, done by a number of groups including our own state economist, there would clearly be an economic benefit for the state of Mississippi, for all Mississippians. Right now … there are families in Mississippi with health problems that are going into bankruptcy because of medical bills. Again, shame on us.
The last imperative is an important one. It’s the political imperative. The leaders of our state and elected officials are taking positions because they think it’s the politically correct thing to do for them. The Siena poll that was just published recently here in Mississippi demonstrates clearly that a majority of Mississippians are ready for all Mississippians to have access to health care. That Mississippians are ready for Medicaid expansion — not only Democrats and independents, but a majority of Republican voters are ready for Medicaid to be expanded. It’s time for elected officials to move forward and do something.”
Dr. Dan Jones on Feb. 2, 2023
The political argument may be the most timely, certainly in this statewide and legislative election year. As Jones highlighted, Reeves appears to be in the vast minority on Medicaid expansion.
The Siena College poll he referenced showed that 80% of Mississippians — including 70% of Republican respondents — support Medicaid expansion. Those everyday Mississippians join a cadre of health care professionals, local elected officials, economists, and others who are calling for Medicaid expansion.
Just two days before the press conference last week, Republican legislative leaders killed 15 bills, all filed by Democrats, that would have expanded Medicaid. Three days before the press conference, Reeves dug in deeper than ever in his opposition to expansion, telling lawmakers, “You have my word that if you stand up to the left’s push for endless government-run healthcare, I will stand with you.”
Reeves disrespectfully dismissed Jones on social media the same way he’s tried to dismiss expansion: by working to distract from the real issue at hand, by name-calling, by discrediting the source or the communicators of the source. It’s deflection straight out of the Donald Trump playbook.
But with so many hospitals on the verge of closing, with so many Mississippians struggling to afford basic health care, and with the overwhelming majority of Mississippians supportive of expansion, deflection may not be enough for Reeves anymore. His opposition to expansion has become a real political liability, and as the attention of the entire state focuses more on the hospital crisis, it could likely become the defining issue of this year’s governor’s race.
Just take a look at how Reeves’ most notable challenger responded to the Jones story last week.
“When Tate Reeves has a choice between doing right by Mississippi or getting ahead in his career, he always chooses himself,” said Brandon Presley, the leading Democratic candidate for governor. “Because he has no backbone, 38 hospitals may close and more Mississippians may die because of lack of access to health care. People deserve affordable health care — plain and simple.”
Reeves and his staff might be smart to start developing a strategy a little more nuanced than firing off a mean tweet.
These members of the “Friendship Nine” were sentenced to 30 days of hard labor for protesting racial segregation Credit: Joel Nichols/Pettus Archives, Winthrop University
The civil rights jail-in movement began when eight Black students and a civil rights organizer became known as the “Friendship Nine” in Rock Hill, South Carolina, were arrested for requesting service at a segregated lunch counter.
They served jail time rather than pay fines, challenging the legitimacy of the laws.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote to the nine and others who joined them in jail, including Charles Sherrod and Diane Nash: “You have inspired all of us by such demonstrative courage and faith. It is good to know that there still remains a creative minority who would rather lose in a cause that will ultimately win than to win in a cause that will ultimately lose.”
The “Jail, No Bail” strategy became the model for the Freedom Riders months later. In 2015, Circuit Court Judge John C. Hayes III threw out the convictions of the Friendship Nine — eight college students and a civil rights organizer who had been convicted of trespassing and protesting at the McCrory store in Rock Hill.
Hayes, the nephew of the original judge who sentenced the Friendship Nine to jail, told them, “We cannot rewrite history, but we can right history.”
The nine were represented by Ernest A. Finney Jr., who defended their case 54 years earlier and went on to become the first Black chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court since Reconstruction.
