Finding a Solution to Mississippi’s Healthcare Crisis
As Mississippi continues to languish at the bottom of the nation’s health indicators, health providers, health advocates, community and faith leaders have joined together to offer ideas that would begin to address this issue.
To start the conversation, we are putting forth a plan that would provide private health insurance to thousands of our state’s working poor; offer reforms that strengthen and improve the state’s Medicaid program; and grow our state’s tax base while protecting jobs and services at our rural hospitals and community health centers.
Over the summer we will take these ideas to voters across Mississippi. The people of Mississippi want to hear solutions. They want answers as to why their local hospital is closing and why Mississippi remains in last place in health outcomes. Mississippians also want to know why their tax dollars are going to pay for healthcare in Arkansas, Kentucky and other states but not here at home. Those states are cutting their uninsured rates in half while Mississippi remains stuck at the bottom.
To continue this conversation, we are asking state leaders to move past politics and study this issue to consider real solutions for our state’s healthcare woes. The ideas Cover Mississippi will present today are just a starting point. These concepts build off both Republican and Democratic Party ideas. It serves as an example that Mississippians can work together to make sure everyone has access to affordable healthcare.
Security for Working Families
Thousands of cashiers, cooks, construction and truck drivers earn too much to qualify for Mississippi Medicaid but aren’t offered coverage by their employer. Our approach would provide these working adults tax credits to working families that would make health insurance affordable and accessible. Instead of expanding the traditional Medicaid program, Mississippi would use federal Medicaid dollars to provide premium assistance to working families.
Promoting Personal Responsibility
Under our alternative approach, Mississippi would establish a health savings account for working families called the Mississippi Healthy Living Account. Enrollees would make regular contributions to this savings account that would be used for their co-pays and to meet other cost sharing requirements. Cost-sharing will be paid into health accounts and can be reduced through compliance with healthy behaviors. Healthy living accounts and healthy behavior protocols will be developed by the state and submitted to CMS for approval.
Reforming Medicaid/Cutting Waste
A Mississippi solution would NOT add Mississippians to the Medicaid Rolls. It actually cuts the number of Mississippians eligible for Medicaid and strengthen the private insurance market. Our approach would transition low-income parents off of traditional Medicaid by providing new private insurance options. Our proposal would increase reimbursement for primary care providers. And by modernizing the enrollment process, the plan would reduce government waste and diminish opportunities for fraud. Several states, including our neighbors in Alabama, have implemented a data-sharing initiative commonly referred to as “Fast-Track.”
Brings Mississippi Tax Dollars Home
No matter your opinion of the ACA, it is the law. And currently Mississippi is paying for the cost of the law while refusing its benefits. Without this or a similar plan, Mississippi taxpayers will spend $1.8 billion to pay for health care in New York, California and other states.