Tate Reeves was late to the hospital rescue crusade, but the Mississippi governor has pulled off what could be a vital part in the effort. This past week, Reeves announced that one of his two plans — and the largest of the two — to provide additional Medicaid funding to the state’s hospitals has been approved by the federal government.
The change is expected to net the hospitals about $600 million a year extra in reimbursements from the state-federal insurance program that provides coverage to the poor and disabled. Another $100 million piece is still waiting on a decision by federal regulators.
Struggling rural hospitals, such as Greenwood Leflore Hospital, have described this additional funding as a “game changer.” The Greenwood hospital’s administration has estimated that Reeves’ two plans combined would bring an extra $10 million annually to the hospital. That big bump in government funding has raised the hopes that Greenwood’s hospital, whose fate seemed dire not long ago, could survive even if its pending application for a critical-access designation — and the extra Medicare funds that separately come with it — can’t get past a federal regulation that stands in the way.
Reeves, it should be remembered, was pushed to address the hospital crisis by a tough reelection challenge from Brandon Presley. The Democratic opponent rested a big part of his campaign on the state’s hospital crisis and the Republican incumbent’s absolute refusal to help the hospitals by expanding Medicaid to cover an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 of the currently uninsured.
Instead, Reeves embraced as an alternative an idea previously pitched by the hospitals themselves — namely, to tax the hospitals and use that money to leverage additional federal funding.
It is a relief that it has worked out.
We still would prefer that Mississippi expand Medicaid, too. That’s a billion dollars a year from Washington that the state continues to thumb its nose at, while 40 other states are happy to take the money.
But give credit where credit is due. Reeves produced a plan to help Mississippi’s hospitals in a significant way, and to do it without requiring the taxpayers to come up with the state’s share of the cost. It might have required an election to get him focused on the hospital crisis, but elections — particularly competitive ones — have a way of shaping the priorities of those in office who are trying to keep their jobs.
