/Medicaid expansion big issue for gubernatorial candidates but not Mississippi voters

Medicaid expansion big issue for gubernatorial candidates but not Mississippi voters

A little over a third of Mississippi voters, or 35 percent, said they would vote for a candidate that supported expanding Medicaid. A NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll conducted in partnership with Mississippi Today found that 33 percent of voters said they would not vote for a candidate who supports expanding Medicaid. 31 percent also said that a candidate’s position wouldn’t impact their vote. This disparity is even greater among Republicans, despite two of Mississippi’s three Republican governoral candidates–Rep. Robert Foster, R.Hernando and Bill Waller Jr., former Chief Justice of Mississippi’s state Supreme Court–both include some form of Medicaid expansion in their platforms. Only 21 percent of Republican-leaning voters stated they would support a candidate who supported Medicaid expansion, while almost half (48%) said that support for Medicaid expansion would make them less inclined to vote for a candidate. Just under 40% of the polled Democrats supported expansion. Sixty-one percent said they would vote for a candidate that supported Medicaid expansion, while only 13 percent said that a candidate’s support would make them less likely. The Democratic front-runner is Attorney General Jim Hood. He has taken advantage of the issue’s popularity with his party’s voter base. He made the case for expansion when he declared his candidacy for Democratic front-runner in October 2018. He said that the state should not accept federal money to expand Medicaid. This despite Mississippi having the highest match rate in America, where the federal government spends nine dollars per dollar on the program. Foster and Waller may be aware that members of their party might not support expansion, despite their support. Waller’s and Foster’s plans rely on federal funding that is made available through the Affordable Care Act. However, Foster and Waller quickly corrected reporters who call their proposals “Medicaid Expansion.” Instead, they called them “Medicaid Reform” and stressed that they are based on the version U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence released when he was governor in Indiana. We’re asking them for a little bit of skin in the game. Foster said that it was like Pence’s Indiana Plan. Foster described a plan, similar to Healthy Indiana, which would require beneficiaries pay a copay. According to the same poll, the top concern of over 25% of Republican voters was the economy and jobs. This is second only after immigration. Foster and Waller both laud expansion as an economic issue. Waller often cites a report which stated that half of state’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing. “Mississippi, a poor state and a rural state. To provide resources, health care and employment for our citizens, we need the state’s 115 hospitals. Waller said that more than 60,000 people work in this sector. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is the only Republican candidate for governor who has not advocated for any form Medicaid expansion. Despite this, Reeves was endorsed by the Mississippi Medical PAC last week, which is the political arm the Mississippi State Medical Association.