Northeast Mississippi lawmakers remain split on postpartum Medicaid extension

Jul. 4—JACINTO — Below the duvet of a historic courthouse, bluegrass twangs and a century of native political custom, each Republican lawmaker from Alcorn County praised the current Supreme Court docket resolution eliminating the constitutional proper to an abortion.

However those self same legislators remained divided about what ought to occur subsequent in a post-Roe Mississippi.

“By selling life, now we have to maintain life,” Republican Rep. Nick Bain of Corinth stated. “It is as much as us now to place our cash the place our mouth is.”

However different lawmakers on the annual Jacinto 4th of July Competition both remained imprecise or noncommittal about what insurance policies must be superior to enhance the lives of kids and new dad and mom in a state with abject poverty and poor maternal and toddler well being outcomes.

A technique the Mississippi State Medical Affiliation and different teams have claimed the state may enhance well being outcomes is by extending postpartum Medicaid protection for an extended time frame.

However Rep. Bubba Carpenter, R-Burnsville, stated that offering extra protection for brand new moms could be a “slippery slope” as a result of it’s one step nearer to increasing Medicaid to the working poor — one thing he opposes.

“I really feel like with the (Youngsters’s Well being Insurance coverage Program) overlaying youngsters and giving two months of Medicaid for the moms, we’re doing sufficient,” Carpenter stated.

Medicaid is a medical insurance program for the needy, aged, blind and disabled. It’s paid by a mixture of federal and state {dollars}. The state’s present Medicaid coverage permits eligible moms who’ve given delivery to obtain protection for 60 days.

Between 2013 and 2016, there have been 136 Mississippi moms who died both throughout being pregnant or inside one 12 months of their being pregnant’s finish, based on the Mississippi State Division of Well being. Of these deaths, 86% of them occurred postpartum.

A report issued by the Middle for Mississippi Well being Coverage, a nonpartisan group that gives info for well being insurance policies, discovered that many of those deaths occurred after Medicaid protection ended at 60 days.

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Bain stays extra open to postpartum care, however he was nonetheless noncommittal on his place on the proposal.

“I believe we have to have discussions and ask questions on it,” Bain stated, including that he additionally supported offering extra sources to enhance the state’s adoption course of.

Home Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, has been steadfast in his opposition to postpartum Medicaid extension and has brazenly questioned if expanded protection of the medical insurance program would result in higher well being outcomes.

Although the chief of the Home has repeatedly shot down the thought, the 52-member state Senate has overwhelmingly handed the proposal a number of occasions.

Sen. Rita Potts Parks, R-Corinth, gave a blunt response when requested if she would help postpartum growth once more sooner or later.

“Completely,” Parks stated.

Even Brandon Presley, the Democratic northern district public service commissioner, in a passionate speech on the pageant stated that being pro-life would not finish with the current Dobbs opinion.

Whereas talking on the subject of how the web might be used to enhance well being care in rural Mississippi, the north Mississippi utility regulator stated the state authorities ought to attempt to enhance the lives of people who find themselves incarcerated, in search of psychological well being therapy and who’re battling habit points.

“Being pro-life isn’t just about defending the unborn, which I help,” Presley stated. “Nevertheless it’s additionally about defending these which are already born.”

After the Court docket overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade opinion and upheld the Mississippi regulation on the heart of the swimsuit, each the speaker and Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann introduced they had been forming separate commissions to look at which insurance policies lawmakers ought to suggest to enhance the lives of moms and kids within the state.

Neither of these committees have met but, however the Senate committee is anticipated to convene over the subsequent few months.

taylor.vance@djournal.com