JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Mississippi senators are proposing an $80 million grant program for hospitals in monetary misery and different packages to assist the state entice and retain nurses and medical doctors, Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann stated Wednesday.
State well being officer Dr. Dan Edney advised lawmakers in November that 54% of rural Mississippi hospitals are vulnerable to closing. Mississippi has numerous uninsured residents and well being care services have confronted rising prices in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Vital and constructive adjustments are wanted to offer our residents with the agricultural well being (care) they want,” Hosemann stated.
The agricultural, impoverished Delta has misplaced inhabitants lately, and a few hospitals in that space have been reducing providers and reducing jobs.
Hosemann unveiled 4 proposals throughout a press 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, information that the state may use to plan for the state’s well being care trade.
Senate Invoice 2373 would create a program to forgive as much as $18,000 in pupil loans for anybody who turns into a nurse and works in Mississippi.
Senate Invoice 2371 would create about $20 million in grants for neighborhood faculties for nursing and allied well being packages. The invoice additionally proposes $5 million to permit extra hospitals to have residency packages for medical doctors, a transfer that Hosemann stated would encourage these medical doctors to remain within the communities the place they educated.
Senate Invoice 2323 it might take away bureaucratic limitations to assist hospitals collaborate.
Hosemann stated the Division of Medicaid is anticipated to hunt federal permission to extend funds for some medical providers, however that request doesn’t require motion by the Legislature.
Hosemann additionally stated Wednesday that he is not going to push to increase Medicaid protection to folks with low-paying jobs that don’t present personal insurance coverage, a place that places him in step with different Republican leaders, together with Gov. Tate Reeves and the president of the Home of Representatives, Philip Gunn. .
Medicaid growth is allowed underneath the well being care overhaul that former President Barack Obama signed into regulation in 2010, with the federal authorities overlaying many of the price. Mississippi is among the many 11 states They haven’t approved the growth.
Nonetheless, the lieutenant governor reiterated a place that places him at odds with the speaker. Hosemann stated he nonetheless desires Mississippi to increase Medicaid protection from 60 days to a full 12 months after supply. Senators voted final 12 months to increase postpartum protection, however the proposal failed within the Home amid opposition from Gunn..
“We received the pro-life case and now we do not wish to handle our mothers? I can not perceive how one can make that type of argument,” Hosemann stated Wednesday.
The US Supreme Courtroom used a Mississippi case final summer time to strike down abortion rights throughout the nation. by overturning the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Gunn has stated this 12 months that she would assist extending postpartum Medicaid protection in Mississippi provided that the state Division of Medicaid helps the extension. Program leaders haven’t taken a place on the problem.
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Observe Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.