If you don’t think Reeves is purposefully trying to distinguish his position from that of Bryant and Gunn while still maintaining his current opposition to Medicaid expansion, then explain why he included this next part:
“Earlier this year, the Senate reauthorized and funded Medicaid without expansion in a bipartisan vote. Unfortunately, the bill died in the House. I stand ready to pass similar bills in the special session, just like we did with the economic incentives in the Yokohama special session.”
But what’s most interesting is the part where we read between the lines of what Reeves is saying. The reauthorization passed in the Senate, as I said above, included the full code section. There is concern that not adopting the entire code section could impact other important pieces of the Medicaid program, such as the hospital tax.
Rest assured that Gunn will rule anything outside the specific subsection of code cited by Bryant as being not germane to the call of the governor. But what about Reeves? Some see a scenario where they pass the same bill they did during the regular session. It would be his prerogative to rule that having the entire Medicaid code section in the bill as being germane to the call because you can’t extend a program’s repealer without addressing all parts of the program.
That may not happen, and even if it does, expansion still is not going to pass. While there is sound legislative reasoning for including the entire code section in the bill, one has to think that if Reeves goes this route it has more to do with inter-party politics than sound legislative reasoning.
Related articles
- HARRISON: Lt. Gov. Reeves may be on Medicaid hot seat. (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
- Gov. Bryant calls special session at 10AM Thursday for Medicaid funding. (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
- HARRISON: Speaker Gunn’s political play with Ethics Commission and Medicaid. (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
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