MS Medicaid program shut down

http://www.picayuneitem.com/articles/2005/03/11/news/03medicaid.txt



Medicaid in limbo, unclear if negotiators will still talk

Friday, March 11, 2005 1:20 PM CST



<snip>
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi House went home for the weekend with questions about Medicaid's finances still unanswered.

Three House negotiators stayed at the Capitol, but it was unclear whether they'd be back in talks with their three Senate counterparts. Relations between the two sides have been tense, and their discussions dissolved into shouting matches earlier this week.
Medicaid was set to run out of money Friday, but Gov. Haley Barbour is asking doctors, pharmacists and other providers to keep serving Medicaid patients on faith that bills will be paid later.<snip>

<snip>

The House and Senate disagree on how to fix Medicaid's immediate need for money.

The Senate wants to take $200 million out of the $500 million health care trust fund, which was established in the late 1990s with Mississippi's settlement from a massive lawsuit against the tobacco industry.

The House says it will take money from the trust fund - but only if it's repaid with a 50-cents-per-pack increase in cigarette taxes. At 18 cents a pack, Mississippi now has one of the lowest rates in the nation.

Barbour, a former tobacco industry lobbyist, objects to any new taxes. Senate leaders also oppose tax increases.<snip>


I wonder how many of the Medicaid program participants are suffering from tobacco related illnesses?

Medicaid does so much good for so many people. Barbour's reign in Miss. has been an unmitigated disaster for the state. I sure hope people are noticing, or will notice when grammaw and Aunt Millie keel over.

Sadly, the way things are going today, that may well be an unreasonable hope. Everywhere.

will the people of the great state of Mississippi just write off their deaths as deserving because they were the elderly poor or the disabled poor?

So sorry for you poor dead person. You should have made better choices and not gotten old, poor or disable.

yes, that is right. Seven dollars and fifty cents a pack and people are still smoking....

Why don't they tax some of the business owners who have their businesses incorporated in the West Indies so that they don't have to pay American taxes on their profits?

This is the msg I rec'd from an internet friend in MS....


"We in Mississippi are in the midst of a crisis at the moment. The entire MS Medicaid system ran out of funds yesterday. Those of us with parents and loved ones in nursing homes, or disabled children are in big trouble unless the legislators get off their behinds and do something. They can't agree on how to fund the program and have let it shut down. Please send some prayers .... for the 786,000 Mississippians who are on Medicaid and now have no health care or pharmaceuticals. The nursing home my mother is in sent out a letter stating they would have to discharge if we cannot pay the bill in advance for April. I have (her disabled son's) meds and food supplements for the moment, but he has to stay healthy because he has no health care insurance. "

What's the message that's gonna be delivered to folks who won't get help now? "Individual responsibility: Find some way to pay for your care yourself!"