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Legendary baseball announcer Jack Buck once proclaimed, “I don’t believe what I just saw.”

Perhaps some Mississippi politicians opposed to Medicaid expansion should proclaim, “I don’t believe what I keep on hearing and reading from the experts.”

A report released last week by Mississippi’s University Research Center is among a plethora of studies telling politicians that expanding Medicaid to provide coverage for primarily the working poor (between 200,000-300,000 Mississippians) will be an economic boon for the state.

The expansion is allowed under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

The latest study, authored by state economist Corey Miller and senior economist Sondra Collins, showed that besides the positives of providing health care coverage for the uninsured, expanding Medicaid would produce an average of 11,000 jobs per year between 2022 and 2027 and provide an additional $44 million per year for the general fund.

Mississippi has given multiple private corporations — ranging from car manufacturers to tire companies to green energy companies — hundreds of millions in tax breaks based on studies showing they would deliver far fewer benefits to the state than Medicaid expansion.

There have been other studies that said essentially the same thing. A 2013 study, written by David Becker and Michael Morrisey of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Health Care Organization and Policy, projected that Medicaid expansion would generate 20,000 jobs, provide money for the state general fund and produce $2 billion in economic activity annually for Mississippi.

A study earlier this year by the Commonwealth Fund, a Washington D.C.-based health care advocacy group and the George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, reached similar conclusions.

In fairness to expansion foes, a 2012 study by the University Research Center surmised the cost to the state to expand Medicaid would be as high as $86 million annually by 2022, but that on the positive note the expansion would generate more than 9,000 jobs.

In 2012, some cited the study’s conclusion that there might not be enough health care providers to take care of the new Medicaid recipients as a reason to oppose expansion. Not wanting poor people to see a doctor because it might inconvenience those who already have insurance could be construed as a selfish reason not to expand Medicaid.

While most studies indicate that Medicaid expansion would not be a drain on the state general fund, still, just to be safe, the Mississippi Hospital Association has offered a plan to help offset any potential cost to the state. The Hospital Association plan would, in part, entail a modest co-pay on Medicaid expansion recipients and a tax on state hospitals. Mississippi hospitals have said they still would come out ahead even if they were paying more in taxes to help offset the 10% state match needed to draw down literally billions in federal funds for expansion.

“This isn’t going to hurt the state budget, but help it,” Richard Robertson, vice president of policy with the Mississippi Hospital Association, told the Starkville Rotary Club in 2019.

Politicians in the state who have opposed Medicaid expansion — Speaker Philip Gunn, Gov. Tate Reeves and numerous legislators — have offered several reasons for their opposition. The primary reason they cite, though, is that the state cannot afford to pay for the expansion. Multiple studies refute that claim.

Other reasons have included that the courts might throw out the Affordable Care Act. Indeed, numerous lawsuits have been filed seeking to strike down the ACA, but they have been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

They also argue that Congress eventually might eliminate the program. Granted, for four years President Donald Trump tried and failed. Now, 38 states, including many Republican-dominated states, have expanded Medicaid. Would senators and congressmen from those states really vote to repeal the program at this point?

Reeves, an acolyte of former President Trump, who is a fierce opponent of former President Barack Obama, often talks of his opposition to Obamacare.

Gunn has reasoned that the state’s poorest and sickest already have coverage and that expanding Medicaid would “bring in another class of citizens who are not in the lowest category. This would be the next tier up. I just do not think we can afford it.”

In most instances, the existing Mississippi Medicaid program covers the disabled, poor pregnant women, poor children and some groups of the elderly. Generally speaking, healthy adults cannot gain coverage through the existing Medicaid program.

Studies show that those benefitting from Medicaid expansion would be people employed in the service sector, cashiers, construction workers and other similar laborers.

It is hard to believe what we keep on hearing and reading from the politicians.

The post Mississippi politicians don’t believe what they keep being told about Medicaid expansion appeared first on Mississippi Today.

OAK GROVE – The proud Oak Grove Warriors, winners of 15 straight and the defending State Class 6A champions, had erased a 26-7 deficit and now led tiny Greenville Christian’s Saints 27-26 in the third quarter Friday night.

The crowd on the double-decked home side of Warrior Field cheered wildly. All around him, Greenville Christian coach Jon Reed McLendon saw — and even heard — some of his best players cramping and screaming in pain between gulps of water and replacement fluids. Star quarterback D.J. Smith was among the suffering, angry that the game had changed so dramatically, angry that his long, muscled legs were betraying him.

For McLendon, it had to seem that all was lost. It surely seemed like that to this observer, who found himself feeling almost sorry for the badly out-numbered visitors, who have become one of the most compelling stories of this or any Mississippi football season.

READ MORE: This all-Black team in Mississippi’s private academy league is making history

Then, somehow, the visiting Saints reached deep within themselves, summoning the will, courage and energy to make spectacular play after spectacular play and pulling off a stunning, 48-41 victory that will be talked about for decades by those who witnessed it.

“We had something to prove,” Smith, the multi-talented quarterback, said after the game. “We had to fight adversity, but our coaches preach that every day. People said we only have 35 players, but I love these guys. I’d go to battle with these guys any day.”

This was a football version of “Hoosiers” — one of the state’s largest high schools with a history of football success, hosting one of the state’s smallest private schools. Oak Grove has twice as many students in its senior class as Greenville Christian has in grades K-12.

But you can only put 11 players on the field at a time, and Greenville Christian’s first 11 — perhaps its first 22 — are as talented as any you will see at the high school level. They are also disciplined, well-coached and play with a togetherness, an unmistakeable bond, that is exceedingly rare.

Oak Grove coach Drew Causey knew all that when he scheduled this made-for-the-moment game just a couple weeks ago. In this COVID-ravaged season, Oak Grove needed a game, and not just anyone is willing to schedule a road game at Warrior Field. Greenville Christian was. The Saints needed a game, and — let’s face it — they needed some competition. The two schools, different in so many ways, came together and made it happen. Both teams should be better for it.

Still, McLendon and his small staff had to be reconsidering the decision to play the game early in the third quarter when all seemed to be going the wrong way. Oak Grove had scored 20 straight points. Smith was writhing in pain from multiple cramps. Star linebackers William Stewart and Altorryian Sandifer were cramping. So were others. Oak Grove, with more than twice as many players dressed out, was rolling.

“We had like five or six guys that started to cramp,” McLendon said. “This is the first game all year that we battled that so severely. It was a physical game. We started to get thin. You have to think about who can go where and you have to get creative with your personnel.”

What Greenville Christian lacks in quantity, the Saints more than make up for with quality. Among those proud and few Saints are several supremely gifted athletes. Start with Smith, who despite the cramps, threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 122 yards and four more scores.

“Smith was big-time tonight,” McLendon said. “We think he’s the best quarterback in the state. The kid is phenomenal.”

When Smith didn’t run or throw it, he handed off to Marlon Palmer, 210 pounds of compact muscle, who ran over, around and through the Warriors for 205 yards on 16 carries. 

All this, despite his own problems with cramps. Palmer might have made the biggest play of the game. With Smith cramping on the sidelines, he broke through the middle of the Oak Grove line, shrugging off several Warrior defenders for a 63-yard touchdown run and a 34-27 lead.

No listing of supremely gifted Saints would be complete without wide receiver Chris Bell, who caught touchdowns of 65 and 71 yards, despite constant double coverage from the Warriors. After his catches, Bell becomes like a running back, breaking tackles with uncommon strength for a wideout. He reminds this observer of A.J. Brown, the Starkville High-turned Ole Miss Rebels-turned Tennessee Titans receiver — not a comparison made lightly.

It took all that skill and much more to subdue Oak Grove, which had won 23 of its last 24 games.

Mostly, it took grit.

“Even when things were going badly there in the third quarter, we knew out guys wouldn’t quit,” McLendon said. “They are tough physically and mentally. They keep getting back up and finding a way. That’s who they are. I could not be more proud.”

For more photos from Friday night’s game, click here.

The post Greenville Christian knocks off reigning 6A champs Oak Grove appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s justice reporter, Brittany Brown, originally reported on discrepancies between Mississippi Department of Corrections vaccination rates and personal accounts from women incarcerated in their facilities.

According to data obtained by Mississippi Today, 89% of people incarcerated by Mississippi’s state-operated prisons are fully vaccinated.  From Jan. 30 to Aug. 11, the Mississippi Department of Health issued more than 31,000 doses of vaccines to MDOC and its contracted healthcare provider VitalCore.

View our data breaking down vaccine administration by dosage and discernment among correctional facilities by vaccine producer:

Out of the doses provided by MSDH, so far Central Mississippi Correctional Facility used 38-42%* of their allotment, Parchman used 65% and South Mississippi Correctional Institution used 84%.

Of the 31,250 doses distributed to correctional facilities across the state, 78% were provided by Pfizer:

*Usage by specific brand was not made clear, so this range takes into account the possible use or nonuse of 600 Johnson & Johnson one-shot doses.

READ MORE:

• MDOC says 89% of incarcerated population is fully vaccinated, though some say they’re still waiting on second dose

• COVID-19 news in other disadvantaged groups, like immigrant communities.

The post Data: Vaccines in Mississippi correctional facilities appeared first on Mississippi Today.

For years, nearly a dozen state government agencies have sent data about the state’s citizens to a research center at Mississippi State University, purportedly to help policymakers make better decisions.

That database, by design, can crank out layered analyses. There are the basics, like drop-out or graduation rates by county. Then there are more complex, like that just under 15% of Mississippi high schoolers who get career-driven technical training wind up staying on that path by attending a public four-year university. 

But the Statewide Longitudinal Data System’s reports and statistics haven’t always been what’s put it in the spotlight. The database’s recent history is messy, marred by years of infrequent board meetings, a former director who used the phrase “alternative data” to describe his work, and bylaws that largely kept the tax-funded database’s analyses from reporters and the public. 

Now the database’s leadership says it’s a new era for the system, which is often called its acronym: SLDS. After two years without any meaningful updates, the SLDS has a fresh line of funding and is under a new set of rules that calls for more access to datasets.

The stakes are high: The system’s success, support, and credibility are crucial if Mississippi and its new workforce development office plan to follow through with promises to close workforce and labor training shortfalls. Without reliable data to help identify gaps in the workforce, it would be all the more difficult for lawmakers and newly founded Accelerate Mississippi to close them. 

“We were not really using it for what its intended purpose is,” said the system’s board chair, Patrick Sullivan. “It’s an analytical tool for policymakers to make decisions, to look at what we should be doing more of to get people into higher paying jobs.” 

The database was at an awkward standstill for the last two years, despite over a decade in investments that includes about $20 million in federal grants. State legislatures declined to fund the database again until last session, when it allocated $1.4 million to the system that’s housed and run from the Mississippi State University campus. That new budget began July 1.

The return of state funds is “going to breathe life back into” the database, said Steven Grice, the executive director of the Mississippi State center contracted to manage the system. 

Rep. Donnie Bell was one of the legislators who pushed to give the system state funds again. Bell, the chair of the workforce development committee, is the one who requested the data that showed how few students in high school technical programs wind up pursuing a four-year degree. 

The point of those programs, Sullivan said, is to keep students on high-value paths all the way to a good job. Based on the data, that’s not happening in high numbers. Bell found what he learned about the high school programs through the database invaluable. 

“We need to find a permanent funding source,” Bell said of the system. “This is something that is crucial for Mississippians and the growth of Mississippi.” 

Information enters the system from 11 state agencies, such as the unemployment office and the Department of Education. It is operated out of Mississippi State University’s National Strategic Planning & Analysis Research Center. The state treats the university center as a third-party vendor under a new five-year contract. 

“For a couple years there was, really, essentially nothing that could be done for the system,” Grice said. “So we’re going to be getting all of the data caught up.”

When an individual’s data is pushed into the system, their identity is replaced with a 10-digit number that is linked across state agencies. That way, the system can cross-reference the data to track people, or their participation in state programs, over time. The data could include where they attended college, whether they got unemployment benefits, their income, and more. 

“With the state opening this Office of Workforce Development, where you have people whose day job is to think about how to develop a workforce, they have this great mature data system at their disposal,” Grice said. “You can start to ask questions that really unlock the potential for economic development that the system has.” 

It’s data that can better inform the state on the specifics of the brain drain crisis. The brain drain —  which is used to describe waves of young, educated Mississippians leaving the state — was something Grice’s predecessor argued was a false narrative. 

Mississippi State’s analysis research center was founded in 2005 by Domenico “Mimmo” Parisi, a sociology professor and data scientist. At that time, he started putting together the state’s first longitudinal data system. 

The federal government encouraged states to create the systems as means to determine the effectiveness of state services and programs. But by the following decade, Parisi’s messaging around the system’s purpose seemed at odds with its founding. 

In a 2019 Mississippi Today investigation about Parisi and the research center, the professor said his goal was to use “alternative data” to write reports that made Mississippi “look bigger and better” than national statistics and rankings had. Parisi’s actions were more akin to a state pitchman and power broker than unbiased scientist. Critics said the center was operating more as a think tank than a university research center. 

Since funding was first cut that year in session, the system had largely been off most lawmaker’s radars. 

Sullivan said he could not point to any one reason state funding was cut to the system, but that it was likely a “series of things” that “hurt the credibility of the data.”

Parisi, who worked closely with former Gov. Phil Bryant, no longer heads the center but now is MSU’s senior advisor for European development. Grice, who was the deputy executive director for the research center, took over officially as its director in March of this year. 

Grice has a decidedly different approach to the data and the center’s role, one that doesn’t include being a storyteller for the state. His researchers provide the data and outcomes, he said. But how those results are interpreted is up to whatever lawmaker or entity that requested a report. 

“I definitely don’t see making conclusions on the data as our job relative to the SLDS,” Grice said. “We try to approach it the way you should approach good science. You have got to park all your preconceived notions.” 

As the contracted operator of the system, the university center or Grice do not sit on the database’s governing board.

Mississippi has called the database “Lifetracks,” but Sullivan said that name is likely to change as the board reintroduces the system. Lifetracks’ website is dated and difficult to navigate. It gives users limited access to reports and datasets related to graduates’ participation in the workforce. 

Sullivan, the president of the Mississippi Energy Institute, became the chair of the board in 2020 and brought with him a clear vision for how the database needed to operate to be useful. Chief among them, that reports should be easier to access and request. 

With Sullivan at the helm, the board that guides the system has had regular meetings. In May 2019, the database had its first meeting in more than two years. That same year, Mississippi Today requested datasets to see outcomes of anti-poverty programs but was told news organizations could not access the info.  

The board this year approved new bylaws that will make it easier for the public and reporters to request data once the system’s new website goes live. 

“In my opinion anyone should have access to it,” Sullivan said. 

Sullivan envisions a website that has less complex data easily available, such as graduation rates by county. If a lawmaker, nonprofit or citizen wanted something that layered data, like examining the outcomes of a specific program, they’d need to put in a request. 

The research center employees who handle the system would then respond with a time and cost estimate. Sullivan wants the turnaround to be quick. He also plans for completed reports to then be posted to the website to be viewed or downloaded. 

“Most people aren’t aware of it,” said Bell, the House member who used the system to look at the success of technical training in high schools. “It can provide so much detailed information that can help us make decisions in the Legislature.” 

Within the first few weeks on the job as the head of the new workforce development office, Ryan Miller, was putting in requests to Grice’s team to get a clearer grasp on Mississippians’ pathways to in-demand careers, or the lack of those pathways. 

While the data may not always be perfect, it gives those leading the state’s workforce development a starting point to set targets. 

“It’s helping us better understand the data we have access to and what the in-demand professions are that have the highest pay,” Miller said. “We need that data to know what the real picture is.” 

The post State leaders fund Mississippi’s controversial database after two years appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In just its third year as a standalone PGA Tour event, Mississippi’s Sanderson Farms Championship apparently has hit the big-time, attracting a mix of established world champions and up-and-coming pro golfers.

Major champions Webb Simpson (2012 U.S. Open), Gary Woodland (2019 U.S. Open), Zach Johnson (2007 Masters, 2015 Open championship), Jimmy Walker (2016 PGA Championship), Lucas Glover (2009 U.S. Open) will join defending champion and 2017 Masters champ Sergio Garcia in the field for Mississippi’s lone PGA Tour event Sept. 27-Oct. 3 at County Club of Jackson.

Also expected to compete is 2021 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Will Zalatoris, who finished last season with eight top top 10 finishes, including runner-up at The Masters.

Several other notable “names” have indicated they will play at CCJ, including 2011 FedExCup champ Brandt Snedeker, 2017 Players champ Si Woo Kim and 2019 U.S. Amateur champion Andy Ogletree, the Mississipian who was low amateur at the 2020 Masters.

Past Sanderson champs in the field also include Sebastion Munoz (2019), Ryan Armour (2017), Cody Gribble (2016), Peter Malnati (2015), Nick Taylor (2014), Scott Stallings (2012), Chris Kirk (2011) and Bill Haas (2010). Haas won the 2011 Fed ExCup.

Ogletree will likely be one of five Mississippians in the field, joining LSU freshman Cohen Trolio (State Am champion from West Point) and Davis Riley (Hattiesburg), Hayden Buckley (Tupelo) and Chad Ramey (Fulton), recent graduates of the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour.

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While Mississippi is no longer last in its vaccination rate against COVID-19, the state is now leading the nation in COVID-19 deaths per capita. 

Mississippi surpassed New Jersey in COVID deaths per 100,000 residents this week, after the state held the title for 15 months. Mississippi taking the top spot was the direct result of a disastrous month that saw the state record more than 20% of its total infections and pushed its healthcare system to the brink of collapse.  

The state’s caseload and hospitalization rates are still quite high, but have decreased significantly from the peaks seen in August. Over the past two weeks, new infections have decreased by 32% and hospitalizations have decreased by 23%. These trends have health experts in the state cautiously optimistic about the future of the pandemic in Mississippi. 

“It certainly does look like our trends are coming down, but we’re still at very high levels of cases and we anticipate that we’re going to continue with those five numbers, at least for a while,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said. 

Mississippi is also leading the nation in the use of monoclonal antibody treatments. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Thursday that the majority of monoclonal antibody treatments have been utilized in the southeast and that Mississippi leads those states in treatments given per capita. 

“I want to remind everyone that the best way to prevent COVID is to get vaccinated,” Dobbs said during a press conference on Thursday. “If folks get COVID, we know that the monoclonal antibody treatments are very effective at preventing hospitalization and can also save your life.”

Up until this week, states had no cap on the amount of monoclonal antibodies they could request from the federal government, but an allocation system has now been implemented. While MSDH has had to move some of their supply around to different providers, Dobbs said that Mississippi is receiving enough to ensure that any Mississippian who seeks out monoclonal treatment can get it.

Dobbs also discussed the risks COVID poses to pregnant people. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 15 pregnant patients have died from the virus, eight of them since the beginning of August. All were not fully vaccinated, with only one of them having received one dose. All were between the ages of 23-40. Additionally, 72 pregnant patients experienced stillbirths due to COVID-related complications, all after 20 weeks of pregnancy. 

“So to protect the moms and also protect our babies, we need to prevent COVID infection,” Dobbs said. 

Dobbs reiterated that vaccination is safe for pregnant patients at any stage of their pregnancy, as is monoclonal antibody treatment if they become infected. 

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Mike Justice, the ex-football coach, was holding court Tuesday afternoon, telling some friends about Parys Haralson, one of his former players. This was one day after the news that Haralson, who starred for Justice at Madison Central and then at Tennessee and in the NFL, had died at age 37 at his home in San Jose, Calif.

“Here’s the deal on Parys: Let’s just take football out of it,” Justice said. “Never mind what a great football player Parys was, what a wonderful teammate he was, how physically gifted he was, and all that. Let’s just talk about the person he was, the smile he always had. Let’s talk about him as a human being. He was always so positive, so smart, so sincere, so polite — Beta Club guy, honor student. Teachers loved him. Coaches loved him. Teammates loved him. With Parys, you knew he was always gonna be in the right place. He was always gonna do the right thing.”

Haralson, from Flora, was a 15-year-old starting defensive end on the 1999 Madison Central team that went 15-0 and won the state championship. Indeed, the state championship game ended with Haralson sacking the Provine quarterback. 

Doug Buckles, who went on to star for Ole Miss on the offensive line, was a senior on that perfect Madison Central team. Of Haralson, Buckles especially remembers this: “In football locker rooms, sophomores are supposed to be seen but not heard. But it wasn’t that way with Parys. He was just 15 but when he spoke, the whole team listened. He was that kind of guy.”

Chamar McDonald, a future professional baseball player, was a junior free safety on that Madison Central championship team. Says McDonald, “The plays rarely got to me. Parys always got them before they could get to me. He was like Superman.”

He looked like the Man of Steel, too. Haralson was naturally strong but also a weight room warrior. As a result, he was chiseled, muscles seemingly on top of muscles.

Haralson became one of the most highly recruited players Justice ever coached. “Could have gone anywhere,” Justice said. “Mickey Andrews (the long-time Florida State defensive coordinator for Bobby Bowden) came in to look some of our seniors when Parys was a junior. We were talking outside the locker room and about that time Parys walked by. Mickey stopped me in mid-sentence and said, ‘Who the hell is that? Why don’t I know about him?’ I told Mickey that Parys was just a junior. So we went on and talked about our seniors, but before he left, Mickey told me, ‘Tell that Harrelson kid he has an official offer from Florida State.’ He had never even talked to him or seen him play. Didn’t need to.”

Haralson became a high school All American for Justice and then signed with Tennessee, disappointing college coaches all across the nation and especially at Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

That was despite the fact that Haralson was what football coaches sometimes call a “tweener.” He was just a tad over six-feet tall and weighed 245 pounds — small for a defensive end and large for an outside linebacker. When Ole Miss coaches asked Buckles what position he thought Haralson would play in college, Buckles said he answered: “Just pick one. Wherever you want him to play, put him there. He’ll make plays.”

Tennessee put him at defensive end and he made the All-SEC freshman team as a top reserve and then started three years for the Vols, serving as captain as a senior. Often as not, he spent most games in the other team’s backfield.

“I played against him once, face to face in 2004,” Buckles said. “My job was to block him. Now, I was a lot bigger (6-6, 310) than Parys but his arms were so dang long and he was so dang strong. I had my arms fully extended and he still got his hands on me. And he was relentless. He told me before the game that we were homies, but he was coming at me on every play. I told him I would expect nothing less and that’s what I got.”

Haralson went on to play nine years in the NFL, seven with the San Francisco 49ers and two more with the Saints. He was a valued member of both squads. He finished his career with 275 tackles, including 28 sacks. And here are two facts that will tell you much about Haralson:

• The first from Justice: “When Parys made the team in San Francisco and knew he was gonna get paid, the first thing he did was buy his mama a house, a nice house. His mama had raised him right and he knew it.”
• When Haralson retired from the Saints in 2014 and was asked by a reporter about his future plans, he answered, “I am going to learn as much I can.”

So, he went to the University of Miami and earned his MBA. The 49ers thought so much of Haralson they hired him as Director of Player Engagement. At the time of his death, Haralson was working in sales for a Silicon Valley company.

“He was in a good place, happy as can be,” McDonald said. “Still worked out a couple times a day. Still in great shape. Still loved to come back and visit Flora. He loved Flora.”

Long-time friends, such as McDonald and Buckles, are struggling to deal with the sudden death of such a cherished friend and such a vibrant, larger-than-life personality. There has been no official word on the cause of Haralson’s death. McDonald and Buckles say they have been told their friend died of a heart attack in his sleep.

“It doesn’t seem real,” McDonald said. “Parys loved his friends and family more than he loved himself. I lost my father 20 years ago, and that was tough, but this with Parys has done a number on me and a lot of others. It’s almost like Superman has died.”

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The college football season enters its third week with some really interesting non-conference, regional matchups, including Mississippi State-Memphis, Ole Miss-Tulane, Troy-Southern Miss and Jackson State-Louisiana Monroes. Plus, we take a look at the super-surprising New Orleans Saints and intriguing Oak Grove-Greenwood Christian high school matchup.

Stream all episodes here.

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