Mississippi needs a new governor

On top of the 90 percent match, the stimulus bill President Joe Biden signed Thursday would give Mississippi, the poorest state in the country, an estimated $600 million over two years to expand Medicaid to the roughly 200,000 to 300,000 people in the state who would be eligible. Nearly 60 percent of people who’d gain health insurance as a result of Medicaid expansion in Mississippi would be people of color. The vast majority of those people are Black.

[...]

During the pandemic, Mississippi has had the highest COVID-19 death rate of any state outside the Northeast. On Friday, the state’s Republican governor, Tate Reeves, said he remained committed to denying access to Medicaid for constituents near the poverty line, even though expanding eligibility would make money for Mississippi as a result of the new stimulus bill.

“My position has not changed. I am opposed to expanding Medicaid in Mississippi,” Gov. Reeves said during a press conference covered by the Mississippi Free Press. When asked by Vox if the prospect of additional funding might make him reconsider his opposition to Medicaid expansion, Reeves said, “No, sir, it will not.”

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Reeves is forfeiting hundreds of millions of dollars to deny his constituents health care in the middle of a pandemic.

  Mother Jones

Apparently he doesn't want his poor (black) constituents to have access to healthcare. The poor need to stay poor. And blacks need to die sooner anyway. It's God's will.

And he's not the only one...

Twelve Republican-led states have refused that offer, leaving about 2.2 million of their constituents without health insurance.

Reeves also doesn't like transgendered people.

Reeves signed a bill on Thursday that blocks transgender athletes from competing on women’s sports teams. Mississippi is the first state to enact such a law.

[U]nder the ACA, the federal government already covers 90% of the costs of expanding Medicaid. As Vox recently explained, the Democrats' new COVID relief package ups the ante: "[N]ewly expanding states would also receive a 5 percent bump in the federal funding match for their traditional Medicaid programs for two years. Because the traditional Medicaid population is significantly larger than the expansion population, the funding bump is projected to cover a state's 10 percent match for expansion enrollees and then some over those two years." It led Jon Chait to joke, "Now states taking the Medicaid expansion would have more than 100 percent of the cost covered by Washington. They would literally have to pay for the privilege of denying coverage to their poorest citizens."

[...]

In an interview with Mississippi Today, Senate Public Health Committee Chair Hob Bryan (D) added that there "will be more money in the state treasury if we expand Medicaid than if we don't."

  MSNBC

Only the most backward red states have refused to implement expanded Medicaid. Those states are now seeing a lot of their rural hospitals closing down, with many more rural hospitals in deep financial trouble.

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In the last decade, more than 100 rural hospitals have closed across the country, according to the University of North Carolina's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. And an analysis by the management consultancy firm Navigant found that 21% of rural hospital in the United States are in danger of closing, too, if their finances don't improve.

Rural hospitals face a variety of challenges. They tend to serve aging communities that suffer from poor health and require expensive treatments. There are often severe doctor shortages in rural areas, and gaps in insurance coverage if patients have insurance at all. And, several studies show that rural hospitals are closing at a faster rate in states that chose not to expand Medicaid coverage to poor residents under Obamacare.

  Daily Kos

The other states that have refused to expand Medicaid: Wyoming, Texas, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas and Florida. Missouri only recently expanded Medicaid through a ballot initiative, defying its GOP leaders.

I get the impression that the GOP doesn't care to govern by the will of the people.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.