MS Today: “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.”