Mississippi doctors, hospitals seem to diverge on Medicaid expansion
With a legislative showdown expected any day now over expanding Medicaid to about 300,000 of the state’s uninsured working poor, the Mississippi State Medical Association has declared that Mississippi’s uninsured deserve medical care but cautioned “a Medicaid expansion may perpetuate a broken system.”
The official MSMA statement is clear in expressing what it says are the anxieties of the state’s physicians that Medicaid expansion would jeopardize an-already troubled health care delivery system in which Medicaid now covers 644,000 low-income, needy or disabled Mississippians.
The MSMA’s worry is nearly opposite that of the Mississippi Hospital Association. The association made up largely of hospital and health care executives says disastrous consequences could befall the state’s hospitals once the federal government shifts money from paying hospitals to cover treatment of the uninsured to expanding Medicaid in the states that participate in the expansion.
Mississippi Business Journal
6/29/13
