As he has several times previously, Brandon Presley pledged Wednesday, at a campaign stop in Greenwood, that he would act immediately to expand Medicaid if elected Mississippi’s governor in November.
He would start, Presley says, by getting a waiver from the federal government to extend the health insurance to the working poor. That’s the easy part. Coming up with the funding to cover the state’s modest 10% cost-share is something else.
That most likely would require legislative action, which Presley acknowledges. He believes, however, there are enough Republican lawmakers who would join with Democrats to make expansion happen, if the occupant of the Governor’s Mansion were an enthusiastic proponent rather than a stiff-necked opponent.
He’s probably right.
Two individuals have been largely responsible for Mississippi remaining one of only 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid and, in the process, left about $1 billion a year on the table that could be used to improve health-care access, shore up struggling hospitals and boost the state’s economy. Those two are Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn.
Gunn is leaving office voluntarily at the end of this year, and Reeves’ future and influence will be decided by voters in November.
Should Reeves lose to Presley, which still seems unlikely, Medicaid expansion would almost certainly face a more receptive audience in the Republican-controlled Legislature. Reeves’ strident opposition has kept GOP members who are open to Medicaid expansion on the sidelines as they knew they didn’t have the votes to override a certain gubernatorial veto — and they weren’t willing to risk being beaten up by the ultraconservative wing of their party for being amenable to a program that was passed by a Democratic Congress and pushed by a Democratic president.
That politicization of the issue, though, has lost steam in many parts of the country as Republican-dominated states have gradually gotten on board either by legislative action or by citizen initiatives that have bypassed the opposition.
Mississippi voters know that Reeves is blocking Medicaid expansion, and they know that Presley will do everything in his power to try to unblock it. According to opinion polls, the majority of Mississippians are with Presley on this issue. The question is whether they are with him enough to shape their vote in November.
