Mississippi Senate considering new version of Medicaid expansion
Despite the Mississippi House passing a historic bill to expand Medicaid, Senate Medicaid Chair Kevin Blackwell still has plans to file a “more conservative” bill than the legislation written by House Speaker Jason White, R-West.
Hours before the deadline to take general bills out of committees Tuesday afternoon, Blackwell, R-Southaven, presented Senate Bill 2735 to his committee, which serves only as the skeleton of a proposed law while Blackwell still works out some of the more exact language, he said.
“We talked to a lot of folks,” Blackwell said after the meeting. “We have talked to the Division of Medicaid and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, and we are trying to get as much data as we can to simply make a sound decision.”
When asked why Blackwell hadn’t yet taken up White’s bill, which was coauthored by Hattiesburg Republican and House Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, he told reporters he felt their version was a scapegoat method to expanding the state’s Medicaid program with federal dollars without actually having a work requirement.
“I think the House bill from the way I look at it is strictly straight expansion,” Blackwell said. “… I think we ought to have a more conservative approach. We need to look at the working poor, and try to get help to them. So, I think our bill would have some work requirements, and if the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services doesn’t accept it, it’s probably over.”
House Bill 1725 passed through the House on Feb. 28, and aims to expand Medicaid to people who make 138% the federal poverty line, or about $20,000 annually. The bill would designate the Mississippi Division of Medicaid to request a 20-hour work requirement waiver from CMS.
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If CMS does not accept the waiver by September, the state would then expand the program anyway. As it is written, the program would only last for about four years, giving lawmakers the chance to repeal it.
Blackwell’s prognosis of the House bill may stem from the fact that many other state’s that expanded Medicaid with work requirements had to reverse them after CMS threw them out shortly after President Joseph Biden took office in 2021.
Georgia actually sued the federal government to reinstate its work requirement and won, but it is now suing again to re-up as the program comes to an expiration date. Georgia is the only other state to have an active work requirement.
If it were to come down to litigation or simply expanding in Mississippi, Blackwell said he would rather settle the whole thing in court.
“You’re going to give CMS the option of taking work requirements, and they’re denying them left and right. They’re obviously going to deny it,” Blackwell said. “We would (sue).”
White willing to compromise to expand Medicaid
In an interview with the Clarion Ledger
one day after the House voted 98-20 to expand health coverage to the state’s working poor, White said he is willing to compromise on some provisions of his bill, though he did not give specifics.
“The only point that I’ve heard they’ve articulated about their plan is that it would have to have the work requirement waiver request for them or it’s a no go,” White said. “That the piece of legislation that they’re working on that they’re going to pass out, will have a work requirement waiver. I think there’s consensus in both chambers on that issue, and then I think we can build the rest of it around.”
If both chambers cannot agree on either Blackwell’s yet to be written bill or White’s, it could go before a conference of senators and House members for an intense debate.
If lawmakers cannot agree on how to expand, they would leave more than 210,000 people without healthcare coverage for yet another year.
“Whether you like the Affordable Care Act, or whether you don’t, it’s what’s with us,” White said. “It’s here, and it’s now older than 10 years, and we’ve got 40 out of 50 states that have (expanded through) it. There’s not another product coming down the line that’s going to cover this set of low-income workers.”
Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.