JACKSON, Miss.- The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance held a news conference Monday to voice their concerns. The complaint is that Mississippi currently comes in at 48th in the nation in concerns of diabetes, and 50th when it comes to infant mortality and premature death.
“Well, today is actually March 23rd, and it’s the 5th birthday of Obamacare. So we should be in this room celebrating the fact that there are 16 million Americans who have health insurance now because of ObamaCare. Being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition because of ObamaCare. Insurance companies used to be able to charge higher premiums just for the fact that a person is a woman. They used to charge people higher premiums for any kind of pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, heart conditions, things like that, and all of that has gone away thanks to ObamaCare. ObamaCare has reduced the uninsured rate by 35% in the past 12 months. We should be celebrating all that, but we have to be here today, because Mississippi is refusing to embrace ObamaCare. We have a governor who is refusing to accept the reality that ObamaCare is the law of the land. He obstructed a state-based exchange that would’ve helped with some of those problems with outreach enrollment. He’s refused to even have a conversation on Medicaid expansion. We have discussed inspection stickers in this state the past few months more than we have Medicaid expansion,” said Jarvis Dortch, Program Manager for the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program.
The bottom line is: too many families don’t have health coverage, and aren’t receiving the medical attention they need. State Representatives were also on hand to speak on the issue, like Rep. Brad Oberhausen, who stated “I think I can speak on behalf of the majority of house democrats to say that we are in full support of having a vote and discussion on Medicaid expansion. However, our current leadership, and our governor has declined to have that vote and/or discussion on the house floor. We have been cut off on debate whenever it pertains to Medicaid expansion.”
Here is a video of State Senator Hillman Frazier at Monday’s News Conference.
