As Mayors we are entrusted with the responsibility to help create healthy communities. Communities where families can flourish, civic institutions are cooperative, and where businesses large and small seek to locate. Access and affordability to quality health care are major components in creating healthy and vibrant communities. Maintaining and expanding hospitals and attracting quality health care providers are an essential for thriving communities.
Our state now faces a set of decisions that impacts our jobs as Mayors. The House and Senate have each passed a version of Medicaid expansion by a veto-proof bipartisan majority. We celebrate the efforts of our elected representatives so far this session, and we are here to encourage them to keep going. What they choose to do in the coming days and weeks will determine whether hundreds of thousands of Mississippians have access to affordable healthcare. It will also determine in many cases if our local hospitals survive and if we can assure businesses that we are attempting to attract can provide a healthy workforce.
The best path to reach the goal of universal healthcare is full Medicaid expansion that covers Mississippians earning up to 138% of the poverty line and qualifies for enhanced federal funding that would be worth billions to the state’s budget and economy. The state economist projects that full expansion would create 12,000 new jobs – the biggest economic development program in the state’s history. Forty states have already taken this deal, including many with Republican majorities. By continuing to pass it up, Mississippians will fall even farther on indicators where we already rank last, including per capita income, life expectancy, and chronic disease rates.
As it stands, only the House version of the bill would achieve full Medicaid expansion. The Senate version, which only extends coverage to people earning less than the poverty line, would cost the state more than full expansion and cover one-fifth as many people. Therefore, as Mayors from around the state we call upon the conferees from the House and Senate to reach a compromise that fully expands Medicaid up to 138% of the federal poverty line. We urge the bipartisan supermajorities that voted for the original bill to maintain their support for the final bill. Full expansion will help create healthy communities around the entire state.
Keith Gaskin
Mayor, City of Columbus
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