Mississippi has nine days to craft a plan to continue Medicaid funding or risk losing the program entirely on July 1, according to a report by Politico.
The problem stems from partisan gridlock in the state legislature, with Democrats refusing to vote on a budget for Medicaid until the chambers hold a vote on whether to expand it and Republicans refusing to call the vote before the legislative session ended in April. The loss of state funding to Medicaid, even in its current unexpanded state, would also mean the loss of federal matching dollars.
Many expected Gov. Phil Bryant (R) to fund the program on an executive order, but the Democratic state Attorney General Jim Hood wrote in a nonbinding opinion that the governor's office did not have state constitutional authority to run Medicaid singlehandedly.
That casts a shadow of doubt over future health coverage for Mississippi's current 700,000 Medicaid beneficiaries. If the program expanded, an estimated 300,000 more would be added to their ranks, according to the report.
A spokesman for the governor said he will not allow the program to expire, meaning his remaining two options to continue Medicaid are to fund it by executive order in opposition to the AG opinion or call for a special legislative session to vote on Medicaid reauthorization funding.
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