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Healthcare leaders gather at state capitol to advocate for Medicaid expansion

Healthcare leaders and advocates from across Mississippi gathered at the state capitol Thursday to encourage lawmakers to extend Medicaid coverage to more people amid question marks mostly reliant on the federal government to erase.

Taking the podium during Patient Advocacy Day to plea for Mississippi to join 39 other states and Washington, D.C. in expanding Medicaid were Kimberly Hughes and Neidre Fears of the American Cancer Society, former University of Mississippi Vice Chancellor and American Heart Association President Dr. Dan Jones, and Leonard Papania of Oceans Healthcare. Even Miss Mississippi stood up to voice her support of an expansion plan, one that would offer government-provided insurance to tens of thousands of people who make too little to afford private coverage.

After the event, which drew around 80 supporters with some lawmakers looking on, Hughes and Jones sat down with SuperTalk Mississippi News to further discuss their mission and why they believe Medicaid expansion is imperative to a healthier Mississippi.

“We gave our message in an enthusiastic way and that was successful, but we’ll really know how it went when their votes are taken,” Jones said.

Hughes noted that expansion could bring with it billions of federal dollars, thousands of jobs, and help struggling hospitals not have to front the cost for uninsured patients. But more importantly to her, it would open eligibility to include people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, the total monthly income for those receiving Medicaid in Mississippi varies by group and age but is one of the country’s strictest.

“It’s important to keep our hospitals open and the economic benefits, but it’s a healthcare issue that impacts a lot of patients in this state,” Hughes said. “Over 200,000 Mississippians have waited long enough. We have put this off for over a decade.”

Jones echoed the patient side of the argument for expansion. A cancer survivor himself, Jones said his time working as a physician in Laurel saw all too often a patient without insurance showing up too late.

“A lot of patients I received too late

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