Sunday, October 1, 2023

Bill Crawford: Reeves' Political Flip-Flop on Hospital Funding

 Gov. Tate Reeves’ unexpected proposal to increase Medicaid funding for hospitals stirred the political pot. 

“Tate must be in trouble,” said one. “Why else would he flip-flop on hospital funding?”  

“It was the most egregious political act I’ve ever seen,” said another. 

“I predict a runoff,” said a third, suggesting Reeves’ race with Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley has tightened considerably.

“What changed? Why is this idea – of increasing hospital ‘bed taxes’ in order to draw down more federal Medicaid dollars – suddenly so brilliant, less than seven weeks from Election Day?” asked Greenwood Commonwealth Editor and Publisher Tim Kalich.

“Clearly politics is at play,” he concluded. 

Over a year ago a group of hospital administrators met with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn to pitch a way to increase funding for our struggling hospitals. Their proposal was based on a successful move by Louisiana. They estimated their proposal would net an additional $700 million a year in Medicaid payments after hospitals paid a higher bed tax to provide matching funds.

Legislative leaders liked the concept and asked Reeves’ Division of Medicaid to review it. An initial review said the plan would only yield about $400 million. Later, the Division of Medicaid told Hosemann the plan would only yield $40 million. So, the proposal was dropped.

Now, Reeves has proposed the same plan and the Division of Medicaid says yes it will provide about $700 million. 

Asked about the flip-flop, Division of Medicaid Director Drew Snyder provided a most telling answer. “I think the difference is we got the right people in the room.”

“That answer alone should make one suspicious,” wrote Kalich. Some suggested “the right people” must include several who told the Governor he needed to do something about hospitals to thwart Presley’s momentum on the issue.

Sadly, the one-year delay has cost some hospitals dearly. Greenwood Leflore Hospital has laid off most of its employees and is drawing on local tax dollars to barely keep the doors open. Other hospitals merged or eliminated services.

The reality is this option to increase Medicaid funding has been available for at least three years based on Louisiana’s experience. For the Governor to now act as a savior after ignoring hospitals’ plight for so long would be “egregious” as the source above said.

All this has nothing to do with Medicaid expansion. It will not provide coverage for the working poor. Rather, it will raise existing managed care and fee-for-service Medicaid reimbursements up to maximum federal limits.  

“Too late for Tate,” said the runoff predictor. Well, we’ll know on November 7th.

“How much longer will you try to have things both ways” – 1 Kings 18:21.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.


23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor Bill. Your horse loses 47-53, Bill.

Anonymous said...

Paint whatever picture you like, Crawford, but the notion of a runoff is silly, not to mention baseless. Then there's impossible.

Anonymous said...

Follow the money.

Anonymous said...

I have voted for Tate Reeves every race he has run in! But not this time, but I WILL NOT vote for a democrat either!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Only in America can the millionaires and billionaires get rich off the government while simultaneously criticizing poor people who need help from the government.

100% of businesses in America have taken some sort of corporate welfare from government.

I challenge any of you wealthy people to tell us how you got rich without any help from the government. You can’t because you all use government to your advantage in so many different ways.

You are all liars and hypocrites!

Anonymous said...

Crawford- the Democrat’s Democrat.

Anonymous said...

A certain group of people hate the other so much, they will do and say anything, to withhold federal government services/monies to keep them from getting something they call a handout. But forgetting they are hurting their constituents also!

Holy are thou!

But, we continue to elect people that give a shit about you and your families.

Anonymous said...

@9:08am - it’s all rigged anyway unless the person you want to win wins, right? Might as well just stay at home.

Anonymous said...

Ahead of all other beliefs, "principles", aspirations, and commitments come the politician's main imperative....GET ELECTED! Ultiamtely everything else is flexible. People who thought Tater was not flexible in that regard know nothing of his chosen profession.

Anonymous said...

Some of you can name call like poorly behaved children do all you want, but those of us who have known Bill Crawford for a very long time know he is a fiscally conservative and logical and practical as well as wanting what is best for Mississippi.
All of you would name call Carmicheal and Reed and every member of the Republican party that broke the Stennis/Eastland hold on this State.
What you have replaced it with Eastland/Stennis grip without brains.
And DO please take a ride to Southern (it actually was hard to believe that many new buildings and renovations of old ones as well as improved roads) and see where our tax money been going while our hospitals close and will be taxed meaning we pay more).

Anonymous said...

“Tate must be in trouble,” said one. “Why else would he flip-flop on hospital funding?”

“It was the most egregious political act I’ve ever seen,” said another.

“I predict a runoff,” said a third, suggesting Reeves’ race with Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley has tightened considerably.

Said "one"? One what? Said "another"? Another what? Said "a third?" A third what?

That's the way you do it, journalism American style. Make up the quotes you need, then use them to rock your little hobby horse into some (allegedly) intellectual opinion making. It's why Americans hold journalists in such low regard, just as we do real estate agents, used car salesmen, politicians, and street-corner vendors of Rolex watches.

Anonymous said...

9:26 echoes leftist Obamaniac's assertion that government, not free enterprise, creates wealth...

Because anybody with money has used a bridge, highway, library etc. Sure and the true wealth creating individuals paid for all those taxes that bought Obama's government, which creates nothing but debt.

Anonymous said...

@1:52
If government funding is so unimportant to the private sector, then why does the private sector spend so much on lobbying the government?

Anonymous said...

I agree with 1:34 pm - Crawford should at least give a generic description of the sources of those quotes. Are any of these people an elected official? What makes them worthy of being quoted? Why should we care whst they think?

Are they Democrat or Republican & hold any position that gives them them a certain amount of credibility? ? Or are they just political hacks & hangers-on who Crawfotd agrees with? Otherwise, how do we know they even exist? If they're not willing to be identified, how do we know if their opinions are credible? Or if the quotes are genuine at all? This is sleazy Bill, & you know it.

Go Tater said...

Tate has done more to help MS citizens than any other Gov in recent history.

Anonymous said...

@3:01pm Tate has merely been a place holder for all the problems that are eventually going to put Mississippi in the stone age. He's a do nothing, and that's why Haley Barbour got him elected.

Anonymous said...

@12:20 - some of us have known Crawford for a long time. Some for a very very long time, including his entry into the political world. And we find it kinda funny that you make the statement that includes him as a 'fiscal conservative like Carmichael AND REED....' because, well, because we have known him for a long time. And kept up with him during those times.

You need to go back and review your history - Crawford renounced his 'fiscal conservatism' and in fact his entire Republican concepts in 1987 when businessman Jack Reed was an incredible nominee of the Mississippi Republican party running against who??? OK< I'll make it easier for you so you don't have to announce your journalistic attempt of hiding the truth by making a statement you think most would accept.

Yes, in 1987 Crawford announced publically his withdrawal from the Republican Party and was not only supporting, but working for --- hold on now; keep your seat ---- that 'fiscally conservative Ray Mabus. You remember, that fiscal conservative (your concept, not mine) that put the state into a hundreds of millions of dollars of deficiet spending. Yes, that's the 'fiscal conservative' that Crawford left the Republican Party to throw his support. Nice try, but an utter failure of you to list "REED" in your credo for Crawford.

No, since Crawford hooked up witht the Mississippi Hospital Association (btw, you know, the only professional assocaition that didn't support Barbour, Bryant, or Reeves) and the one that is sitting on a twenty something million dollars of association money to spend on political activities that are designed to benefit their members - he has done nothing but attack any republican office holder that doesn't cowtow to the Hospital Associaiton's begging for more money, including setting up an organization that they owned that would determine the proper payments to their members from our state Medicaid dollars.

Say what you want - the one thing that Crawford cannot claim today is an independent statement about anything that revolves around hospitals and their drawing of tax dollars to fund the big dollar payments to their executives while trying to maintain a system that was great in the Hill Burton days but doesn't fit today's medical profession.

Anonymous said...

“sleazy Bill”, that's very appropriate.

Anonymous said...

October 1, 2023 at 3:14 PM, list those problems that will put Mississippi back into the Stone Age. I wait with bated breath.

Anonymous said...

Haley Barbour, who always speaks as though he's sucking on a peach pit, tried to ruin energy costs in South MS to provide an income stream for himself? He had to know it.

Anonymous said...

Tate has proposed a tax INCREASE on hospitals which he will in turn give back to those same hospitals which is of course a gimmick. The race is not in play Tate will win by over 10 points.

Anonymous said...

Presley is the next Governor of Mississippi. There are just too many Mississippians who have friends or family or themselves that have dealt with the issue of affordable healthcare. They're going to walk into that voting booth and vote with their heart. I was born in the Greenwood Hospital, my kid was born there. I was taken there after a serious wreck. Where the hell do i go now? Vote Presley please..

Anonymous said...

8:18 - Ruleville comes to mind. And Oxford is where most are heading these days. Do you, by chance, have an automobile?


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