Mississippi senators are proposing an $80 million grant program for financially distressed hospitals and different packages to assist the state appeal to and retain nurses and docs, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann mentioned Wednesday.
State well being officer Dr. Dan Edney advised lawmakers in November that 54% of rural Mississippi hospitals are susceptible to closing. Mississippi has a lot of uninsured residents and well being care amenities have confronted growing prices throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Important and optimistic modifications are wanted to offer our residents with the agricultural well being (care) they want,” Hosemann mentioned.
The agricultural, impoverished Delta has misplaced inhabitants lately, and a few hospitals in that space have been slicing companies and slicing jobs.
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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 companies they provide, information that the state might use to plan for the state’s well being care business.
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 group schools for nursing and allied well being packages. The invoice additionally proposes $5 million to permit extra hospitals to have residency packages for docs, a transfer that Hosemann mentioned would encourage these docs to remain within the communities the place they skilled.
Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, is supported by some senators as he discusses well being care laws throughout a information convention in his workplace on the state Capitol in Jackson, on January 18, 2023.
(AP Picture/Rogelio V. Solis)
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 companies, however that request doesn’t require motion by the Legislature.
Hosemann additionally mentioned Wednesday that he won’t 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 enlargement is allowed beneath the well being care overhaul that former President Barack Obama signed into legislation in 2010, with the federal authorities overlaying many of the value. Mississippi is amongst 11 states that haven’t licensed the enlargement.
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Nevertheless, the lieutenant governor reiterated a place that places him at odds with the speaker. Hosemann mentioned he nonetheless needs Mississippi to increase Medicaid protection from 60 days to a full yr after supply. Senators voted final yr 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 mentioned Wednesday.
The US Supreme Courtroom used a Mississippi case final summer time to strike down abortion rights nationwide by overturning the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Gunn has mentioned this yr that she would help 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.