Mississippi senators will hold hearings this fall to examine how to make health care more accessible and affordable, and all options could be considered, Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said Wednesday.
“The time for simply saying ‘no’ to our options for working Mississippians has passed,” Hosemann said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Neshoba County Fair. “When a cancer diagnosis can bankrupt a family, we have a responsibility to help. Further, no Mississippian should be further than 30 minutes from an emergency room.”
Speaking of the Senate hearings, Hosemann said: “From managed care, to scope of practice issues, to insurance options, everything is on the table.”
Mississippi is among a dozen states that have resisted expanding Medicaid to the working poor. The program is paid by state and federal money, and expansion is an option under the health care overhaul signed into law in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama.