The expansion of Medicaid is expected to be a hot-button issue in Jackson during the next legislative session when it convenes Jan. 8, 2013.
During Tuesday’s Pike County Chamber of Commerce Legislative Breakfast at Golden Corral, a state senator and local business owner debated the merits of the issue, which is a part of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is more commonly known.
Other lawmakers who attended were Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, Rep. Sam Mims V, R-McComb, Sen. Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez, and Sen. Kelvin Butler, D-McCom.
Butler chairman of the Labor Committee and vice chairman of Enrolled Bills. He supports Medicaid expansion on the basis that it assists more citizens in the long run and creates jobs.
However, Clifton Van Cleave, owner of Buffalo Services, said Medicaid expansion will hurt small businesses like his because he won’t be able to cover all his employees, who number 175.
“This is an opportunity of a lifetime for people in this state to get health care,” said Butler, whose District 38 includes Amite, Adams, Pike, Walthall and Wilkinson counties. “We’re talking about 9,000 jobs all across the state. There are a lot of poor, working families who make under $23,000. My job is to help everybody, not just big business.”
“I started in 1991 and had everybody covered,” Van Cleave said. “If this passes, I’ll have to take employees from full-time to part-time or cut people,” Van Cleave said.
“I want to insure everybody, but I can’t afford it,” Van Cleave said.
“There is a lot of rhetoric going on out there,” Butler responded. “We don’t want to hurt anybody, but we’ve got to look at the big picture. We’ve got to help working families and I think it’s the right thing to do, Mr. Van Cleave.”
Moak has been in office since 1987, and his District 53 includes Amite, Franklin, Lawrence, Lincoln and Pike counties. He is the Democratic Caucus leader.
“I’m for it,” Moak said. “People are coming into emergency rooms without insurance. Hospitals would rather have people come through their doors with Medicaid or cash rather than neither. This is for the betterment of the state with 9.1 percent unemployment. This is a way to create some jobs.”
Mims, whose District 97 includes Adams, Amite, Franklin, Lawrence, Pike and Walthall counties, and Sojourner, whose District 37 includes Adams, Amite, Franklin and Pike counties, took the opposite view. Mims chairs the Public Health and Human Services Committee.
“I don’t support expanding Medicaid or Obamacare,” Mims said. “I think there will be a push by some legislators for expanding Medicaid. My take is, it is definitely expanding the role of government. We have 3 million people in Mississippi, so we’ll have about 1 million on Medicaid, almost a third of the population of Mississippi. To me, it’s the wrong approach. Let’s get these people jobs. It’s going to be a heated debate. I think it’s a policy issue.”
“I’m with Sam,” Sojourner said. “I’m not going to support expansion. The bottom line is if it wasn’t for small business, there would be no jobs.”
A question from the audience asked lawmakers what happened to plans calling for Highway 24 to be four-laned from McComb to Liberty.
“We’re taking feedback on the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale situation in Liberty,” Sojourner said, adding that she has discussed the issue with Mississippi Department of Transportation officials and Gov. Phil Bryant.
“Our priority is we don’t want to stand in the way of their play,” Sojourner said. “We don’t want to spend millions of dollars tearing roads up. Instead of a full-fledged four-lane project, we need to show how we can develop more surface corridors.”
“That was part of the 1987 Highway program,” Moak said. “I would like to see the program done. I think we need to have it done whether we have shale play, or not. I think this is the year the highway program goes away.”
