Mississippi

Medicare, Medicaid numbers: How many people use federal health insurance in Mississippi?

Published

1 year ago

March 4, 2025

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Medicare, Medicaid numbers: How many people use federal health insurance in Mississippi?

As of August 2024, approximately 642,000 Mississippians relied on Medicaid and CHIP for healthcare coverage.
Although Mississippi has not yet adopted Medicaid expansion, discussions about its potential implementation are ongoing.
More than half of births in Mississippi are covered by Medicaid.

Medicaid could face cuts as Congress looks to develop a new budget. The program benefits the elderly, children, people with disabilities and adults. Do you know what government health care spending looks like in your community? How many people in Mississippi depend on the program?

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a budget resolution that would extend President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and plans for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over a decade.

Trump reportedly said he doesn’t want cuts to Medicare, which insures people 65 and older and those with disabilities.

Experts have expressed concern changes could be coming to programs like Medicaid, which insures about one in five Americans.

According to KFF, about 24% of the Mississippi population is covered by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In fiscal year 2022, Medicaid spending was $6.3 billion in the state, and the federal government paid 82.5% of costs.

Here’s what we know about how many people get health insurance from the government in Mississippi, including Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP and how the programs affect Mississippi families.

How many Mississippi residents get Medicare?

According to KFF, Mississippi had almost 637,000 Medicare beneficiaries in 2024. The federal health insurance program helps seniors 65 and older and adults with long-term disabilities. Most in Mississippi, 57.1% are enrolled in traditional Medicare, and about 43% are in Medicare Advantage.

Approximately 503,000 get Part D coverage, which limits prescription drug costs to $2,000 out of pocket. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 also caps insulin costs at $35 for Medicare recipients, starting in 2023.

How many people in Mississippi are on Medicaid and CHIP?

According to KFF, about 642,000 people in Mississippi got health care via Medicaid and CHIP as of August 2024.

By the numbers, that looks like:

One in seven adults aged 19-64.
One in two kids.
Three in four nursing home residents.
Two in seven Medicare recipients.
Three in eight people with disabilities.

About 64% of non-elderly Medicaid enrollees in the state are non-white.

What about work requirements?

Some conservatives have suggested adding a work requirement to the federal program.

The move failed to gain enough traction in Trump’s last term, and opponents said the move fails to realize significant savings. They argue it adds to administrative costs while paperwork requirements trip up and strip benefits from qualified recipients.

Some states have implemented the plan.

Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of the KFF program on Medicaid and the uninsured, told USA TODAY that Mississippi is among the states that have asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for the OK to launch a Medicaid work program.

More than half of adult Medicaid recipients in Mississippi — 62% — are working, per KFF. Forty percent of the state is defined as low income, and about 15.2% of adults in Mississippi reported having medical debt, almost twice the national average of 8.6%.

Where does Medicaid spending in Mississippi go?

According to KFF, adults and children make up 65% of the state’s Medicaid enrollment and account for 34% of spending. Elderly people and those with disabilities make up 35% of Mississippi enrollment but account for 66% of expenditures.

The main Medicaid spending in Mississippi goes to:

Managed care: 43%.
Long-term care: 28%.
Acute care: 20%
Medicare payments: 6%.
Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments: 4%.

Health Insurance: Who’s covered and who’s not

Did Mississippi adopt Medicaid expansion?

No. Forty states and the District of Columbia have adopted and implemented the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, but Mississippi is not one of them.

The measure died last year in the Mississippi Legislature, despite work to expand healthcare to about 200,00 of the state’s working poor. The likelihood that Medicaid expansion might pass in 2025 currently looks slim.

Expansion allows adults with income up to 138% of the poverty line to get coverage.

According to KFF, the state currently pays 23 cents of each dollar spent on Medicaid, with the federal government booting 77% of costs.

The state, KFF said, would drop its share to 10 cents of every dollar spent if it adopts the expansion and potentially see $400 million in two years in American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) funds.

The future of the expansion, however, is unclear amid current federal budget talks.

Leadership in the Mississippi Legislature has reportedly agreed to keep “dummy bills” alive in the House and Senate while the issue is debated by the GOP-led Congress and in the White House.

Medicare vs. Medicaid: Key differences in the government-run programs

Medicare and Medicaid both are government-run health insurance programs but there are several key differences between the two.

How does Medicaid affect families?

More than half of births in the state, 57%, are covered by Medicaid, and Mississippi is part of the 12-month postpartum coverage extension.

About 20% of women aged 15-49 in Mississippi are insured through Medicaid.

Parents must have an income less than 27% of the federal poverty level to keep Medicaid after pregnancy coverage ends in Mississippi. (That amount is set by the Department of Health and Human Services and depends on the number of people in the home.)

Last year, a report from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan foundation focused on health care policy, ranked Mississippi last in women’s health and reproductive care. The state scored low overall because of lack of access to care — particularly in the Delta area — a statewide abortion ban and the lack of Medicaid expansion.

Mississippi’s infant mortality rate per 100,000 people is also high at 9.1, compared to 5.6 for the U.S.

Contributing: Pam Dankins, Grant McLaughlin, Sudiksha Kochi, Savannah Kuchar, Ken Alltucker, Riley Beggin

Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at bbolden@gannett.com.

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Mississippi

Desoto County native helps guide NASA’s Artemis II moon mission

Published

3 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Press Room

Desoto County native helps guide NASA’s Artemis II moon mission

From Mississippi to the moon.

That’s one way to characterize the career trajectory of Matthew Ramsey, a DeSoto County native who is helping to guide Artemis II, the NASA space mission now on its way to Earth’s natural satellite.

A veteran aerospace engineer and 1993 Mississippi State graduate who pitched for the university’s “Diamond Dawgs” baseball team while studying the science and design principles that would prove invaluable to NASA, Ramsey, who hails from Hernando, is “mission manager” for the expedition that is taking astronauts around the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Working largely out of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Ramsey was responsible for ensuring the safety and efficiency of the hardware and technology for the flight, while also helping to define the priorities of the mission.

Launched April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Artemis II mission consists of four astronauts inside an Orion rocket on a 10-day, 685,000-mile “flyby” around the moon. The crew will test life-support systems, engineering maneuverability and other aspects of space travel in preparation for the return of astronauts to the lunar surface — and beyond.

“For me, it’s all about the crew and ensuring their safety as they venture to the Moon and come home,” said Ramsey, in a statement released by NASA. “Sending people thousands of miles from home and doing it in a way that sets the stage for long-term exploration and scientific discovery is an incredibly complex task.”

Referencing his college career with the Mississippi State Bulldogs, or “Diamond Dawgs,” he said: “There are a lot of similarities between mission management and pitching. You control many aspects of the tempo, and there’s a lot of weight on your shoulders.”

Ramsey worked in both private and government sectors of the tech industry before joining the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 2002, working on the design of guidance, navigation and control systems for various rocket programs. For Artemis I, the uncrewed moon-orbiting mission of 2022, he coordinated the work of multiple engineering teams.

Ramsey and his colleagues already are preparing for Artemis III, which will conduct tests in Earth’s orbit, and Artemis IV, scheduled for the spring of 2028, which will return astronauts to the lunar surface.

As a NASA press release states, Ramsey is helping to get the space agency “primed for what lies ahead: sending humans back to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years and laying the foundation for future missions that will ultimately enable human exploration of Mars.”

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Mississippi

Mississippi judges could receive pay raises exceeding $10,000

Published

15 hours ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

Mississippi judges could receive pay raises exceeding ,000

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – More than 100 judges could soon receive pay raises exceeding $10,000 under legislation now awaiting the governor’s signature.

In all, 128 judges would receive raises ranging from $11,404 to $13,877.

“We’re doing that for judges to retain good judges, to attract better lawyers to the bench to serve as judges,” said Rep. Robert Johnson, who voted in favor of the pay raise.

Proposed raises by position

Circuit and chancery court judges would receive a pay raise of $13,063, bringing their new salary to $171,063.

Presiding justices of the Supreme Court would receive a pay raise of $13,877, bringing their new salary to $190,614.

Associate justices of the Supreme Court would receive a pay raise of $13,825, bringing their new salary to $187,625.

The chief justice of the Supreme Court would receive a pay raise of $12,680, bringing the new salary to $194,171.

The chief judge of the Court of Appeals would receive a pay raise of $13,275, bringing the new salary to $182,624.

Associate judges of the Court of Appeals would receive a pay raise of $11,404, bringing their new salary to $179,871.

“We want the best people in those jobs. To attract them, you got to pay them,” Johnson said.

Teacher pay comparison

While Johnson supported the judicial pay raises, he said teachers should have also received a significant pay increase.

Lawmakers approved giving teachers and assistant teachers a $2,000 raise.

Special education teachers would get an additional $2,000, for a total raise of $4,000.

Mississippi ranks last in the country when it comes to teacher pay.

According to the National Education Association, the average teacher salary in Mississippi is $53,704.

Johnson said state leaders should find funding to give educators a thriving wage, the same way they did for judges.

“We ought to have that same philosophy, and I have that same philosophy, and I think most people do with teachers, we need to do the same thing,” Johnson said. “Now, arguably, a teacher pay raise I’m talking about would be 10 to 20 times larger because there are more teachers than there are judges. But the philosophy is the same. If you want to attract the best people, you’ve got to pay the best people.”

The bill now heads to the governor’s desk. If signed into law, the new raises would take effect July 1.

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Mississippi

Lawmakers look to “Strengthen Mississippi Homes” with new mitigation program

Published

1 day ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

Lawmakers look to “Strengthen Mississippi Homes” with new mitigation program

(Photo from Shutterstock)

Mitigation grants could soon be available for Mississippi homeowners looking to fortify their roofs. The grants are not to exceed $10,000 and awards will be made through a lottery.

The Legislature has sent a bill to the governor that establishes the “Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program” to aid homeowners across the state in retrofitting insurable property to resist loss due to hurricane, tornado, hail, or other catastrophic windstorm events.

Both the state Senate and House unanimously passed the conference report creating the mitigation program on Wednesday.

The program outlined in SB 2409 will be administered by the Mississippi Insurance Department. It will provide grants to retrofit dwellings to resist loss from windstorms. The retrofits must meet or exceed the FORTIFIED roof standard of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS).

While the program is being established for homeowners in all areas of the state, the Coast delegation was a driving force behind the measure authored by State Senator Walter Michel (R), chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee.

Jackson County State Senator Jeremy England (R) celebrated the legislation late Tuesday after it cleared his chamber, saying the goal of the bill is to lower insurance costs not only on the Coast, but for all of Mississippi.

“Today, we sent a bill to the Governor setting up a program that will allow incentives to homeowners to fortify to new requirements to ‘mitigate’ damage from wind storms (like stronger roofing and water protection),” England shared on social media. “Once enough homes on our coast and in our state take advantage of this program, we will see insurance rates start to drop.”

England added that the program is one “we all should be very proud of, and that we all should take advantage of.”

State Senator Scott DeLano (R) played a key role in getting the program through the Legislature. His Coast colleague England said DeLano “led the way” as he planned meetings with engineers and specialists in preparation for the legislation and setting up the grant program.

Eligible dwellings to be considered for a retrofit grant from the Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program must be a single-family residence, not a condominium or manufactured home. The dwelling must be the applicant’s primary residence and it must be insured for windstorm loss, and if necessary, flood loss. In addition, the dwelling must be in “good repair” and has not previously been retrofitted to meet the IBHS FORTIFIED roof standard. An inspection will be performed to verify the application and condition of the dwelling.

Grants are not to exceed $10,000 per recipient and awards will be made “through a lottery or other allocation mechanism established by the Mississippi Department of Insurance for eligibility requirements by source of funds and subject to the availability of funds.”

The state Insurance Department is allowed to contract out the implementation and management of the program at a cost of no more than 5% of annual deposits into the Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program Fund. An annual report on the program is to be submitted by the department to the governor and the Legislature each December 1.

Lawmakers also established an advisory council to meet three times a year “for the purpose of advising the Mississippi Department of Insurance in performance, efficiency, and operations of the Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program.” The advisory council will consist of three state senators, three members of the state House of Representatives, and the Executive Director of the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriters Association.

“Lower insurance rates for homeowners are right around the corner,” Senator England said. “This is going to be one of the unheralded wins of the 2026 legislative session.”

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