Medicaid Poll: What would you like to see happen?

Have Medicaid fatigue yet? What would you like to see happen as the deadline of July 1 approaches?

Below the poll are a few of the latest Medicaid articles and there is a podcast to the right of this post with Senator Melanie Sojourner on the subject. Comments are welcome.

Related articles

• GUNN: Government cannot create prosperity.
• BROWN: Democrats proposal expands health insurance to Mississippians with reduced risks to the state.
• PLUNKETT: Dems latest Medicaid proposal: A lemon by any other name.
• PEP Talk Podcast: Dr. Randy Easterling discusses the pressure of Medicaid expansion on Mississippi’s doctors.
• Ethics Commission vote clears way for Medicaid special session.
• HARRISON: Lt. Gov. Reeves may be on Medicaid hot seat.
• Mississippi Democrats and Republicans restate the obvious in dueling resolutions on Medicaid. (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• Race-based study group attempts to sway states on Medicaid expansion with polling data. (mississippipep.wordpress.com)

WINFORD: Media too quick to judge Gov. Bryant’s comments on education and women in the workplace.

Isn’t it great when a politician makes some sort of gaffe and the public gets all worked up over it? Who doesn’t like when the media takes some words out of context, turns them on their head and then repeats them over and over until people are outraged and someone’s credibility is hurt?

In a Washington Post Live event about education and reform last week, Governor Phil Bryant discussed some steps that Mississippi was taking to improve the state’s education system as well as issues surrounding the nation’s education as a whole.

After talking about many issues, causes and symptoms, the moderator asked Bryant why the nation’s system was so mediocre. Bryant responded by saying that it started when “both parents started working, and the mom is in the workplace.” This raised the ire of many in the media, including many who admitted that they actually had not heard Bryant, only took the quote from another source and ran with it.

Almost every article about the supposed gaffe failed to include the next sentence from Bryant’s mouth: “That’s not a bad thing.”

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Secretary Hosemann says SCOTUS ruling on Arizona law not an issue with Mississippi Voter ID.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann’s office on Monday said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down an Arizona law is not pertinent to Mississippi’s pending voter ID law.

“Mississippi uses the federal form for voter registration developed by the (Election Assistance Commission) which does not require documentary proof of citizenship,” said Hosemann spokeswoman Pamela Weaver. ”The EAC form only requires the applicant state, under penalty of perjury, that he or she is a U.S. Citizen. Therefore, this ruling has no effect on Mississippi.”

The high court on Monday issued a ruling against Arizona’s law, passed as a ballot initiative by voters in 2004, would invalidate a federal voter registration form accepted by all states. The form requires those registering to vote swear they are U.S. citizens. The Arizona law required proof, such as a birth certificate or passport.

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BROWN: Democrats proposal expands health insurance to Mississippians with reduced risks to the state.

BY: Cecil Brown

Democrats in the legislature recently offered a compromise proposal to end the standoff on Medicaid expansion. Under our proposal, Mississippi would adopt Republican Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney’s idea for a state based health insurance exchange. We will then use the billions of new federal dollars we will receive under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) to allow the 300,000 working Mississippians who are currently uninsured and whose income is less than 138% of the federal poverty level to purchase individual private sector health insurance policies through the insurance exchange.

There are a number of advantages to this proposal. First, it answers the question of what happens if the federal government reneges on its promise to pay 100% of the cost of Medicaid expansion for the first 3 years and as much as 90% in subsequent years. The answer is simple. If that happens, the insurance premiums don’t get paid and the individuals’ coverage ends. There is no ongoing cost to the state.

Secondly, the bulk of the administrative cost of the new program is borne by the private insurance companies who write the policies. The law specifically allows the health insurance exchange to charge a fee to cover these costs.

Third, the program will bring competition into the equation. Assuming multiple insurance companies participate, as they have in other states, the newly insured will be able to choose insurance coverage to meet their specific needs. There will be no one size fits all package as there is with the Medicaid program.

Fourth, such an arrangement eliminates the problem of “churning” – the situation where an individual’s income is below the 138% threshold in some years and above it in others. (A self-employed person, for example.) Under this plan the newly covered will have private sector insurance policies that can be retained regardless of income. In years where his or her income is below the 138% threshold, the premiums will be paid by the new federal money. In other years, the individual could pay the premium with whatever assistance is offered under other provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Finally, because these 300,000 relatively low income Mississippians will have private health insurance, the incidence of uncompensated health care will be substantially lowered. Instead of using emergency rooms for primary care, they will be able to use private physicians. Instead of not being able to afford preventive care, they will be able to have annual physical exams and other preventive measure. Instead of writing off the cost of expensive procedures because they cannot collect, hospitals will be paid under the individual insurance policies.

Our choices are clear. We can refuse to participate in any way and leave 300,000 working Mississippians without health insurance, devastate our hospitals as their federal funds are cut and lose the opportunity to grow our health care economy with the estimated 9,000 new private sector jobs such a plan will create. Or we can accept this compromise proposal which will allow Mississippi taxpayers to benefit from the billions of federal dollars that are available to us through the Affordable Care Act, improve the health care opportunities for 300, 000 of our fellow Mississippians and create thousands of new private sector jobs.

This plan will require legislation and approval by the federal department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We have met with HHS and feel very good about our chance of receiving their approval. However, the first step is for the state to adopt the plan. Democrats look forward to working with our Republican colleagues and the Governor in crafting the details of the plan in a special legislative session before the end of June.

Rep. Cecil Brown is a Democrat serving portions of Hinds County in the Mississippi House of Representatives.

CRAWFORD: MS Power’s Kemper Plant a solid long-term investment.

In 2009 when Mississippi Power Company began discussions with the Mississippi Public Service Commission about its need to replace aging coal-fired plants, adding a new natural gas plant was considered. However, this would have made MPCo’s generating capacity 75% dependent on price-volatile natural gas. The Commission instead approved the lignite plant, giving MPCo a diversified capacity mix of 50% natural gas, 25% coal, and 25% lignite. Costs for lignite coal are low and stable.

Despite the sound reasoning that guided MPCo’s decision to build the lignite plant, based on EPA’s pending rules and the need for prudent fuel diversity, the company and the Commission have come under fire. Opponents voice concerns about the plant’s costs and electricity rate increases and argue MPCo should build a natural gas plant.

Reasons to avoid over-dependence on natural gas are profound. The plant is costing more than projected, but cost overages are being covered by company stockholders, not customers. To pay for the plant, MPCo has sought Commission approval to increase rates 22 percent; 15 percent of that has already occurred. But the impact is far less. As MPCo increased rates based on new capital costs it also reduced rates based on lower fuel costs. Today, despite the 15 percent increase, the company’s electricity rates are about the same as in 2009.

In 1985 when Entergy completed Grand Gulf nuclear plant, rates jumped 54 percent. In 1981 when MPCo completed its Plant Daniel coal units, rates increased 30 percent.

Both plants proved to be good investments, providing low-cost energy for decades.

“We the people” depend upon our elected public service commissioners to make prudent forward looking, long-term decisions. They did so in approving MPCo’s lignite plant.

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Mississippi may have more money in FY 2014.

House Appropriations Chair Herb Frierson, R-Poplarville, said the state is poised to end the fiscal year later this month with a “substantial” surplus, based on May tax collections.

For May, the state collected $170.9 million, or 44.5 percent, more than the amount the state’s fiscal leaders projected would be collected. Those official projections were used during the 2012 legislative session to fund state government for the current fiscal year.

“It will probably be substantial,” Frierson said of the ending cash balance due to revenue exceeding projections. “Just guessing, without my spreadsheets in front of me, it might be $300 million.”

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MDA responds to federal inquiries into low income job numbers as state port.

The Mississippi Development Authority intends for 51 percent of new jobs at the state port to be filled by low- to moderate-income residents, but never said current jobs would meet that goal, the agency says in response to concerns the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has raised.

MDA secured $570 million in HUD recovery dollars for improvements at the port’s West Pier as an economic development project that would benefit low- to moderate-income residents. MDA must track jobs and report them to HUD to show the project is meeting its goals, or potentially face having to repay the money.

HUD informed MDA this spring the agency had documented only 50 of 1,286 existing jobs claimed at the port. MDA, HUD said, would have to supply documentation by early June that showed 51 percent of the total jobs are held by low- to moderate-income people.

MDA provided the Sun Herald with its response to HUD after the newspaper filed a written request for the records that an MDA staffer agreed to hand-deliver Friday to the agency’s office in Jackson. MDA insisted the request be hand-delivered or sent by mail.

MDA says in the response only 10 percent of port jobs were held by low- to moderate-income people when HUD awarded funding. Compliance will ultimately come, MDA says, through creation of new jobs.

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SALTER: AG Hood’s ruling on new gun law strikes common sense balance.

No government ruling on guns ever wins universal praise, but Hood – a serious outdoorsman and a former district attorney who has more than a passing acquaintance with both guns and violent crime – does a good job in this ruling of striking a common sense balance between respecting guns rights and public safety.

Open carry advocates generally fared well in this ruling, but then so did those concerned about people packing in volatile venues like university campuses, schools, athletic events, and government buildings. So, too, did private property owners who want to maintain some control of the liability they accept on their property.

The group most likely to have problems with this opinion is law enforcement officers, for the simple reason that it allows more law-abiding citizens to legally be on the streets of Mississippi with weapons and it allows them to do so without fear of much interference from the police. That, based on the laws passed in recent years, is clearly the will of the majority of the Legislature.

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Tuition at Mississippi’s Community Colleges to rise this fall.

Tuition will rise at 11 of Mississippi’s 15 public community colleges this fall, with average tuition for two semesters (fall and spring) rising about 6 percent to $2,376.

Here are the rates that each college has approved or has projected to the state Community College Board, as well as the percentage change from the 2012-2013 academic year:

— Coahoma: $2,300, unchanged

— Copiah-Lincoln: $2,350, 10.6 percent

— East Central: $2,210, 4.5 percent

— East Mississippi: $2,600, 5.8 percent

— Hinds: $2,260, 8.8 percent

— Holmes: $2,288, 6.6 percent

— Itawamba: $2,200, 9.1 percent

— Jones: $2,722, 8.9 percent

— Meridian: $2,314, 3 percent

— Mississippi Delta: $2,450, unchanged

— Mississippi Gulf Coast: $2,472, unchanged

— Northeast Mississippi: $2,322, unchanged

— Northwest Mississippi: $2,250, unchanged

— Pearl River: $2,510, 8.4 percent

— Southwest Mississippi: $2,400, 12.9 percent

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47 Mississippi cities miss Tuesday deadline to file election results with Secretary of State.

A total of 47 Mississippi cities have not submitted their certified election results to the Secretary of State’s Office.

The following cities have failed to timely file their 2013 General Election results with the Secretary of State’s office:

Abbeville (Lafayette County)

Baldwyn (Lee And Prentiss Counties)

Belmont (Tishomingo County)

Benoit (Bolivar County)

Big Creek (Calhoun County)

Chunky (Newton County)

Cleveland (Bolivar County)

Courtland (Panola County)

Crenshaw (Panola & Quitman Counties)

Crowder (Panola And Quitman Counties)

Dumas (Tippah County)

Durant (Holmes County)

Ecru (Pontotoc County)

Eden (Yazoo County)

Falcon (Quitman County)

Falkner (Tippah County)

Gautier (Jackson County)

Glen (Alcorn County)

Glendora (Tallahatchie County)

Hatley (Monroe County)

Hazlehurst (Copiah County)

Heidelberg (Jasper County)

Indianola (Sunflower County)

Jonestown (Coahoma County)

Jumpertown (Prentiss County)

Lexington (Holmes County)

Lumberton (Lamar And Pearl River

Lyon (Coahoma County)

Maben (Oktibbeha And Webster Counties)

Mize (Smith County)

Montrose (Jasper County)

New Houlka (Chickasaw County)

Ocean Springs (Jackson County)

Olive Branch (Desoto County)

Oxford (Lafayette County)

Pace (Bolivar County)

Schlater (Leflore County)

Shubuta (Clarke County)

Silver City (Humphreys County)

Slate Springs (Calhoun County)

Toccopola (Pontotoc County)

Tremont (Itawamba County)

Vaiden (Carroll County)

Vardaman (Calhoun County)

Walnut (Tippah County)

Waynesboro (Wayne County)

Weir (Choctaw County)