JACKSON, Miss. – Thursday was first day of the special session to authorize Medicaid and so far the House has passed the Medicaid Appropriations Bill, which opens money to fund the program. They also passed the Medicaid Reauthorization Bill without a repealer.
According to Speaker Philip Gun, “There is no repealer on this bill because we believe that the days of playing politics with the lives of 700,00 Mississippians should end.”
Both of those bills have been held on a motion to reconsider, so the earliest the Senate can vote on the bills will be Friday.
During today’s session Democrats did try to pass an amendment to set up a state insurance exchange, but it failed. Currently the state is on the path to having a federal insurance exchange put in place, which would not cover 36 counties. That means those counties would not have access to Federal tax credits that they would have access to under a state run insurance exchange.
Thirty-thousand of your tax dollars were spent to call Thursday’s session and another $30,000 will be spent again each day of the special session. The legislature has until Sunday night to refund the program or 700,000 Mississippians will be without health coverage.
