Mississippi has roughly the same cancer rate as the nation at large, but we have the highest cancer mortality rate. We trade off from year to year to become forty-ninth, but, in general, if you get cancer in Mississippi, the prognosis is the worst in the country. Our oncologists are trained the same way as everybody else’s, so what is going on here?

Poverty. Especially Black poverty. We have the highest poverty rate in the nation, sometimes trailing Louisiana, but nearly always us: 17.8%. We have the lowest median income in this country. Our poverty rate among Black folks is around 30%, and they have a thirteen percent higher cancer mortality rate than our white folks. I smell a correlation.

Medicaid in Mississippi pays for cancer treatment, especially breast and cervical cancer, with a special program (BCC). Mississippi receives the highest percentage of Federal funds (77.3%) of any state in the Union — because of our poverty rate. The state pays only 22.7% of Medicaid costs, even after the massive cuts to Medicaid the U.S. Congress passed last year. Sounds like an excellent deal.

Our state government has repeatedly refused Medicaid expansion, even when our Federal matching rate was 82.9%. We would not expand Medicaid even when we paid only 17.1%.

We should keep in mind that about 12% of our white population live in poverty (matching the national average). These folks need Medicaid, too, and access to the hospitals and other health care facilities that soon will be lost due to Medicaid cuts.

Bill Gillmore

Columbus