Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, is backed by some senators as he discusses well being care laws throughout a information convention in his workplace on the state Capitol in Jackson, on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (AP Picture/Rogelio V. Solis)
AP
JACKSON, Miss.
Mississippi senators are proposing an $80 million grant program for financially struggling hospitals and different applications to assist the state appeal to and retain nurses and physicians, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann mentioned Wednesday.
The state well being officer, Dr. Dan Edney, instructed legislators in November that 54% of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are liable to closing. Mississippi has numerous uninsured residents, and well being care services have confronted rising bills throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There must be important, optimistic adjustments in an effort to present our residents with the required rural well being (care),” Hosemann mentioned.
The agricultural, impoverished Delta has misplaced inhabitants over the previous a number of years, and a few hospitals in that space have been curbing providers and chopping jobs.
Hosemann unveiled 4 proposals throughout a information convention, together with Senate Invoice 2372, which might create the hospital grant program. Hospitals that obtain cash must submit details about what number of sufferers they’ve and what sorts of medical providers they provide — knowledge that the state might use in planning for the well being care business within the state.
Senate Invoice 2373 would create program to forgive as much as $18,000 in scholar loans for any one that turns into a nurse and works in Mississippi.
Senate Invoice 2371 would create about $20 million in grants to group faculties for nursing and allied well being applications. The invoice additionally proposes $5 million to let extra hospitals have residency applications for physicians — a transfer that Hosemann mentioned would encourage these physicians to stay within the communities the place they skilled.
Senate Invoice 2323 would take away bureaucratic limitations to assist hospitals collaborate.
Hosemann mentioned the Division of Medicaid is predicted to hunt federal permission to extend funds for some medical providers, however that request doesn’t require motion from the Legislature.
Hosemann additionally mentioned Wednesday that he is not going to push to increase Medicaid protection to individuals in low-paying jobs that do not present non-public insurance coverage — a place that places him consistent with different Republican leaders, together with Gov. Tate Reeves and Home Speaker Philip Gunn.
Medicaid enlargement is allowed below the well being care overhaul that former President Barack Obama signed into legislation in 2010, with the federal authorities protecting a lot of the price. Mississippi is among the many 11 states that haven’t approved the enlargement.
The lieutenant governor reiterated one place that places him at odds with the speaker, although. Hosemann mentioned he nonetheless desires Mississippi to increase Medicaid protection from 60 days to a full 12 months after childbirth. Senators voted final 12 months to increase the postpartum protection, however the proposal failed within the Home amid opposition from Gunn.
“We received the pro-life case and now we do not need to maintain our mothers? I can not perceive how you’ll be able to make that form of argument,” Hosemann mentioned Wednesday.
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom used a Mississippi case final summer season to upend abortion rights nationwide by overturning the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Gunn has mentioned this 12 months that he would help extending postpartum Medicaid protection in Mississippi provided that the state Division of Medicaid comes out in help of the extension. This system’s leaders haven’t taken a place on the problem.
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Comply with Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.
