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Mississippi House Democrats block Medicaid budget
House Democrats on Sunday night blocked passage of the $840 million Medicaid budget, a move to try to force a vote on expanding the program and to block Gov. Phil Bryant from running it by executive order.
“The federal government is offering venture capital to expand the largest industry we’ve got in this state, and we can’t even get a vote and debate on it,” said Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville. “So we’re doing what we have to do. We are going to have an up-or-down vote on Medicaid expansion — it may be in a special session — or we are not going to have Medicaid.”
Medicaid was already in limbo, set to “expire” technically June 31. In the partisan battle over expanding Medicaid to cover the working poor per Obamacare, House Democrats killed one Medicaid reauthorization bill and Republicans killed another.
Expansion supporters, backed by doctors and hospitals, say that besides providing health care for an additional 300,000 poor people, the billions of federal dollars promised to expand would create jobs and help the economy.
Opponents say they don’t trust the federal government to provide all it’s promising and that expanding the state-federal program, which is already costly, would break the state budget.
Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn had said he would not allow a vote on Medicaid expansion in the House and was prepared to end the legislative session and let Bryant run Medicaid by executive order.
But without a budget passed, there would be no money available for Bryant to run the program even temporarily after June 30, Democrats said.
“If this passes and Medicaid is not reauthorized, the governor could use this money to try to run the program by executive fiat,” Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, reminded his colleagues before the vote.
Said Bryant: “It is unfortunate that the Democrats in the Mississippi House are choosing political posturing to expand Obamacare at the expense of vulnerable citizens in nursing homes, aged, blind and disabled adults from losing services by not funding Medicaid.”
Lawmakers on Sunday night continued passing the more than 100 bills that make up the state’s $5.7 billion budget.
House Democrats on Sunday night blocked passage of the $840 million Medicaid budget, a move to try to force a vote on expanding the program and to block Gov. Phil Bryant from running it by executive order.
“The federal government is offering venture capital to expand the largest industry we’ve got in this state, and we can’t even get a vote and debate on it,” said Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville. “So we’re doing what we have to do. We are going to have an up-or-down vote on Medicaid expansion — it may be in a special session — or we are not going to have Medicaid.”
Medicaid was already in limbo, set to “expire” technically June 31. In the partisan battle over expanding Medicaid to cover the working poor per Obamacare, House Democrats killed one Medicaid reauthorization bill and Republicans killed another.
Expansion supporters, backed by doctors and hospitals, say that besides providing health care for an additional 300,000 poor people, the billions of federal dollars promised to expand would create jobs and help the economy.
Opponents say they don’t trust the federal government to provide all it’s promising and that expanding the state-federal program, which is already costly, would break the state budget.
Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn had said he would not allow a vote on Medicaid expansion in the House and was prepared to end the legislative session and let Bryant run Medicaid by executive order.
But without a budget passed, there would be no money available for Bryant to run the program even temporarily after June 30, Democrats said.
“If this passes and Medicaid is not reauthorized, the governor could use this money to try to run the program by executive fiat,” Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, reminded his colleagues before the vote.
Said Bryant: “It is unfortunate that the Democrats in the Mississippi House are choosing political posturing to expand Obamacare at the expense of vulnerable citizens in nursing homes, aged, blind and disabled adults from losing services by not funding Medicaid.”
Lawmakers on Sunday night continued passing the more than 100 bills that make up the state’s $5.7 billion budget.
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