Medicaid expansion efforts fizzled and died Thursday in Republican-led Mississippi because top lawmakers could not agree on a final proposal to send to the House and Senate.
This was the first year that expansion has received serious legislative discussion in Mississippi, which is one of the poorest states in the U.S. and has some of the worst health outcomes.
Any plan would have needed to pass with at least a two-thirds vote — a wide enough margin to survive an expected veto from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who refers to Medicaid as “welfare” and says he does not want more people to enroll.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who refers to Medicaid as “welfare”
The worst part about that is that calling it welfare is supposed to be a disparagement. Because they think welfare is bad. Anything that helps poor people is bad.
Yeah, it’s not like there is a whole general welfare clause in the Constitution or anything.
The whut nah?
splut
As always the welfare states rail against welfare to keep people poor, uneducated, and in ill health.
For FY2023, Mississippi adopted a budget of $26.3 billion. But of that state budget, some 45 percent of it was met with federal dollars.
Federal payments to Mississippi average about $6,880 per capita – ranking the state as one of the most dependent states on federal taxpayer largesse.And to give a complete perspective, Mississippi puts far, far less into the federal coffers than it takes out as a state. Mississippi taxpayers receive $2.73 back in federal spending for every dollar in federal taxes paid.
From an independent news source in Mississippi last year.
