The Mississipi State Medical Association recently held its Annual Session.
According to its email release to members, the MSMA House of Delegates adopted the following resolutions at the Annual Session regarding policy and legislation:
– Ongoing Opposition to Mandatory Maintenance of Certification (Referred to Board of Trustees)
– Oppose Ballot Initiative 42 (Referred to Board of Trustees)
– Support Legislation to Adopt the SMBL Interntate Medical Licensure Compact.
– Rectify Loss of Physician Deferred Compensation (Referred to Board of Trustees)
– Eliminate Insurer-Imposed Barriers Used to Deny Medication and Treatments.
– Telemedicine as a Reimbursed Component of an Established Patient/Physician Relationship
Of particular note this campaign season, as highlighted above, is ballot Initiative 42 – the convoluted campaign to remove the Legislature from education appropriation under general law and place those funding decisions in a Chancery Court, or as Democrats put it, fully fund MAEP (although the initiative never references funding or MAEP).
Why would MSMA’s delegates refer a resolution to its Trustees opposing Initiative 42?
Is it because they want our children to be ill prepared for college or our future healthcare workers to be unskilled and unprepared for the workforce?
Of course not.
My guess is that the MSMA recognizes what many other business and industry organizations realize – that Inititative 42 has the very real potential of impacting the entire budget of the State of Mississippi, meaning the other budget items the state is responsible for funding would be significantly reduced at potentially harmful levels.
Two items the MSMA delegates mention as Medicaid priorities in this same announcement are:
– Improve Access in Medicaid for Women’s Primary Care Services
– Funding to Lower Teen Pregnancy
Both of these priorities would be affected if the state is required through appropriation via litigation or as a result of the judicial Robin Hooding of tax dollars to increase education funding beyond the bounds of fiscal sanity when considering the full slate of the State of Mississippi’s budgetary responsibilities.
Initiative 42 is a singular issue focused campaign that does not consider the overall health of our state’s finances, and trade organizations such as the MSMA and others who have an interest in seeing their piece of the pie given proper consideration – in this case, healthcare – are concerned about fiscal realities should pro42ers backed by millions in out-of-state monies from liberal special interests fleece enough voters in November with their heart stirring imagery of children and schools.
