In a special session on November 2, 2022, the Mississippi legislature “quickly approved” state financial incentives for an Indiana company to open a manufacturing plant in the Columbus area. (“Plant incentives approved,” by Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press, November 2, 2022.) “The total ask of incentives and investment from the state is $246,798,000.” (“Mississippi House and Senate agreed on the tax incentives,” by Sarah Ulmer, Y’all Politics, November 2, 2022.)
The new business landed for the Golden Triangle area should be celebrated, and those who brought it about deserve recognition for their meaningful accomplishment. In that regard, all Mississippians should hope that those same good men and women are now putting their efforts into another important project, one that is also difficult and economically significant. That project involves securing healthcare and saving our hospitals.
Last month at the Capitol there was a Senate committee meeting that concerned Mississippi’s struggling hospitals, including the Greenwood Leflore Hospital. The state’s Health Officer David Edney told the Senate Committee that 38 Mississippi hospitals “are in danger of immediate closure or closure in the near term.” (“Senators hear about crisis facing state hospitals, but make no commitments on solutions,” by Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today, November 21, 2022.) It was anticipated by the announcement that from the meeting would come word of a better plan than Medicaid expansion to address the immediate circumstances in Greenwood and the impending disaster in other, mostly rural hospitals. The news report coming out of that meeting was disappointing. One senator indicated that the matter may not even be addressed in the 2023 session. (Id.)
While the majority of those strained facilities may be in regions with high incidents of people called the “working poor,” our elected leaders would be wise to remember that true prosperity includes concern for all of the state and all of her citizens. For the City of Greenwood and surrounding Delta and Hill counties that rely on healthcare provided at the Greenwood Leflore Hospital the situation is dangerous. The hospital’s forced closure is inevitable without legislative action. As a result, the city and surrounding communities will be without comprehensive medical services.
It was reported that the “[Greenwood Leflore] hospital has been losing money for years.” (“Stevenson: ‘Do what it takes to save hospital,” by Kevin Edwards, Greenwood Commonwealth, November 16, 2022, page 1.) That appears to be the condition of most if not all rural hospitals and is probably the reason that several once-independent hospitals have been sold to or consolidated with larger hospital systems that operate outside of Mississippi.
Given the inefficiencies of small size and lack of dependable resources, many facilities are likely not more than first aid stations. It seems the right thing to do would be to close them, to be consolidated with more sound, yet still accessible, neighboring institutions.
As with the consolidation of public school districts, meaningful action will be politically unpopular. Some legislators, Democrat and Republican, will lose their jobs over it. Such is the sacrifice of dedicated public servants.
I agree with the refrain oft-stated by members of the executive and legislative party in charge. For I do not believe in socialism, from the standpoint of economics, governments, or morals. By political philosophy and, based on the poor history of socialized medicine, I have not favored expanding Medicaid. However, I have been assuming that there is a legitimate and realistic alternative.
But the Governor and the Legislature have not come up with an alternative. And this debate has been dragging on for too long. If they have a better plan, it needs to be brought up now.
In-God-We-Trust Mississippi has a lot of poor people in who are suffering and dying for lack of access to hospital and medical care. For whatever reason their circumstances, and there are many (some self-imposed for sure), being disgraced by being ignored amounts to mockery. That’s dangerous business. (“He who mocks the poor, blasphemes his Maker.” Proverbs 27:17.)
Morally and politically, if unaddressed, this crisis and its outcome will lie on the shoulders of those who had the means and the wits to remedy the problem, but did nothing.
We’re talking life and death here. Rich or poor, if you live in an area without a hospital and you break your neck falling out of a deer stand or have a heart attack because you couldn’t afford to see a doctor to control your diabetes, you will find yourself in the place of ultimate equality and equity. Things don’t have to be that way.
An ageless opinion is attributed to the ancient Roman lawyer, philosopher, and statesmen, Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC): “Unpopularity earned by doing what is right is not real unpopularity; rather, it is glory.”
If the state elects not to expand Medicaid, then it must come up with a plan that addresses the problem so that people can receive proper healthcare. Whatever the path, part of the effort should include a real plan to get those at the edge of poverty educated, skill-trained and employed. If the governor can’t come up with a plan and, recognizing the emergency, call a special session, then the first priority for the upcoming legislative session must be this crisis. And this is a crisis; a crisis about hospitals, a crisis about regional economies, and a crisis about 250,000 people who need medical help.
Someone, much wiser than I, has explained that because our leaders cannot come up with or, worse, do not want to come up with a Plan, the only real alternative is to expand Medicaid in Mississippi. Reluctantly, I agree.
Pray that Mississippi’s good leaders will be wise and do right; something perhaps unpopular, but honorable and glorious.
Chip Williams is a Northsider.
