Potential expansion of Mississippi’s Medicaid program looks no brighter for 2026 than it did in Gov. Tate Reeves’ previous five years as the state’s chief executive.
There’s a seeming lack of buzz around expansion that was in the air before recent sessions of the Mississippi Legislature. There is also little movement on expansion in the other nine states that haven’t taken the step to expand their rolls.
Non-expansion states, including Mississippi, have looked at initiating a work requirement for new Medicaid enrollees. However, those ideas have been difficult to enact almost everywhere and legislators have summarily killed them in committees.
The Medicaid issue is also unlikely to arise because a new coalition of Mississippi healthcare organizations and institutions isn’t exactly extolling expansion as a priority for the 90-day legislative session beginning Jan. 6.
The newly-planted Mississippi Healthcare Collaborative recently held its first meeting since formation last year. According to the SuperTalk Mississippi news outlet, “The conference covered a range of pressing issues shaping Mississippi’s healthcare system, including hospital sustainability, Medicaid operations, PBM reform, 340B programs, Affordable Care Act dynamics, and innovations in telehealth and value-based care.”
“Medicaid operations” could mean almost anything other than expanding the program. Gov. Reeves, a strong MHC backer, remains adamant against expansion, which would add some 250,000 healthcare-vulnerable citizens to the rolls. Already, upwards of 750,000 Mississippians — yes, 25 percent of the state’s population — are on Medicaid.
The cooperative’s first major conference followed Reeves’ veto of two Medicaid technical bills earlier this year. Those bills are considered by lawmakers each session to keep the law current with ongoing federal mandates, but there is no requirement that a new one be passed every year. If none becomes law, the existing Medicaid statute continues as is.
If you have trouble sleeping and need some heavy reading to help, go online to “2025 Mississippi Senate Bill 2386,” one of those gritty technical bills vetoed by Reeves. You’ll soon be dreaming about “hospital assessments,” “supplemental payment programs,” and “third-party payors for a Medicaid service.”
Reeves spoke at the recent initial conference of the Mississippi Healthcare Collaborative, a union of hospital executives, state government health officials, physicians, federal policymakers, trade groups and others of healthcare interest. In Fairhope, Alabama.
The organization is somewhat similar to the Mississippi Hospital Association, which squabbled internally during the last gubernatorial election between Reeves and Democrat Brandon Presley over a large financial contribution to the Presley campaign.
Many of the largest hospitals in the state, including the mother ship University of Mississippi Medical Center, bolted the MHA to join the new group, whose stated focus is straightforward. UMMC later left the group.
