Miss. House, Senate pick Medicaid conference committee
Mississippi Lt. Gov Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Jason White have chosen their picks for conference committee members to iron out a compromise for Medicaid expansion.
White made his appointments earlier this month, nominating House Medicaid Committee chairwoman Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, Sam Creekmore, R-Albany and Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, to negotiate with three senators to iron out a compromise between the House and Senate Medicaid plans, which starkly differ from each other.
Hosemann made his appointments on Friday, picking Senate Medicaid Committee Chairman Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, Nicole Boyd, R-Oxford and Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula. Neither White nor Hosemann chose a Democrat or a Black lawmaker to sit on the conference committee.
A conference committee is called whenever both chambers cannot fully agree on a specific piece of legislation. the committee typically consists of three members from each chamber.
While conference committee meeting are open to the public, most conferees never do so, choosing instead to meet via phone calls, text messages and hallway conversations, Blackwell said. However, this time, both sides appear open to publicly meeting to discuss the Medicaid expansion bill.
“It’s definitely something I’m open to,” Blackwell said. “Usually for a lot of these (conference bills) some chairmen will just meet and only one thing will be changed, and it takes like five seconds. This won’t be one of those times.”
McGee and Blackwell both introduced bills to expand Medicaid, but where those bills differ is about a 120,000-person coverage gap, the numbers of hours someone would have to work in order to receive Medicaid benefits and the exceptions for others to join the state’s Medicaid program.
Mississippi pays 33% of to implement it’s Medicaid program and the federal government pays a 77% match. People who are typically covered under the state’s Medicaid program are
poor children, mothers and pregnant women.
Under the House plan, the state would pay nothing for at least two years and receive up to $1 billion per year to expand Medicaid to 138% the federal poverty line, which is about $25,000 per year for one person. It would also require someone age 19 to 64 to work 20 hours per week and people who are currently on private health insurance would have to wait one year before being eligible for Medicaid. The Hilltop Institute, a research firm, estimated that about 200,000 people could be eligible for Medicaid under expansion.
Under the Senate plan, the Mississippi Division of Medicaid would expand up to 99% of the federal poverty line, or about $15,000 per year for one person. It would require people age 19 to 64 to work at least 30 hours per week, with exceptions for full time students and caregivers for young children, to name a few. Blackwell told reporters it could cover up to about 80,000 people, but he only expected around 40,000 to actually sign up. The federal government would not pitch in any additional supporting funds.
Both plans are unlikely to be approved by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which have denied work requirements in the past.
Meet the Mississippi House lawmakers negotiating for Medicaid expansion
McGee is the chairwoman of the House Medicaid Committee and has spear headed efforts on reforming the state’s Medicaid laws this year to provide more services to Medicaid beneficiaries, mothers and pregnant women.
Earlier this year, she spearheaded legislation to allow some pregnant women whose family makes 194% FPL net family income is 194% FPL to have presumed eligibility for Medicaid and receive care before their Medicaid application is officially approved by MDM.
Last year, she also led the effort to extend Medicaid benefits to pregnant women, which increased postpartum eligibility from 60 days after giving birth to 12 months.
Creekmore, who serves as the House Public Health and Welfare Committee chairman, has long been a proponent of Medicaid in Mississippi.
Creekmore told the Clarion Ledger that expansion would not just benefit patients but also hospitals seeking to become more financially stable.
“I’m very hopeful and excited that we both produced a Medicaid reform plan, and we got ours out of the house, they had theirs out of the Senate,” he said. “There’s a spirit of cooperation… We do have a pretty big gap between the two plans, but there does seem to be a spirit of cooperation to get something done. So I’m excited about the opportunity for Mississippi.”
Hood, who represented Hattiesburg, served as the Medicaid Committee chairman before McGee in the last four-year term. Under his leadership of the committee, several bills that aimed to expand Medicaid died without much or any consideration from the committee.
However, he did pass on McGee’s bill to provide additional benefits to mothers in the state’s Medicaid program last year.
Senate conferees for Medicaid expansion
Blackwell, who had before this year been opposed to Medicaid expansion, has introduced a more stringent version of Medicaid expansion in Mississippi.
Blackwell told the Clarion Ledger the Senate may be unwilling to deviate from many of its hardline positions on expansion. Still, he said he still needs to have those discussions with the House conferees before tying the Senate’s position to a line in the sand.
Boyd, a senator from Oxford, serves as Blackwell’s vice chairwoman.
In the past, Boyd has advocated for Medicaid expansions in several debates despite this only being her second term in the Legislature.
Wiggins, who chairs the Senate Judiciary A Committee, has been outspoken supporter for the Senate Medicaid expansion plan, and has even pushed back against Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has publicly said he totally opposes both the Senate and the House plans.
Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.