Mississippi Spotlight reporting is produced in partnership with the Community Foundation for Mississippi’s local news collaborative, which is independently funded in part by Microsoft Corp. The collaborative includes the Clarion Ledger, the Jackson Advocate, Jackson State University, Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Mississippi Today.
Dr. Tim Alford knew that Mississippians were struggling to get health care before he began working in the emergency room in Kosciusko five years ago.
It’s far worse than he thought, said the longtime family physician and past president of the Mississippi State Medical Association. “People are not being able to get their primary care, so they default to the emergency room. People are flocking here because so many people are locked out of the system.”
This Mississippi Spotlight excerpt from Mississippi Edition takes parts of Dr. Alford's conversation with Jerry Mitchell to explore the cost of not expanding Medicaid.
See the full story by Jerry Mitchell of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting
Mississippi's rural hospitals were facing challenges before the coronavirus pandemic began last year. Questions regarding their viability surfaced regularly, and some, like North Oak Regional Medical Center in Tate County closed down due to mismanagement. Now, the current pandemic is adding new financial obstacles with limitations on elective surgeries and an influx of un or under-insured patients.
For years a collection of health professionals and state lawmakers have sought to solve this problem by advocating the expansion of Medicaid. Supports say the federal program would inject over a billion dollars into the state's health care system. We talk to Tim Moore of the Mississippi Hospital Association and Senator Hob Bryan (D).
See the full story by Luke Ramseth of the Clarion Ledger.