It’s probably no surprise that the nation’s poorest state has the nation’s highest rate of sub-prime credit scores. But the reason why may be worth considering.
A 2022 study by the Urban Institute showed that 30% of Mississippians had sub-prime credit scores, the highest percentage among all the states.
In comparison, Mississippi’s neighboring states had these sub-prime percentages – Alabama and Louisiana 29%, Arkansas 28%, and Tennessee 25%. The national average was 20%. Nationally as well as in Mississippi, the percentages of sub-prime credit scores for majority black communities was nearly double that of majority white communities.
“Why does the South have such ugly credit scores?” was the topic of a Washington Post analysis in February. Author Andrew Van Dam tracked the problem to medical debt. “Medical debt may not be the only force behind the South’s credit struggles, but it appears to be a key contributor,” he wrote. “So where did it all come from? And why is it concentrated in the South?”
His research found that “those in the South are substantially more likely to suffer from four or more chronic conditions. And poor health tends to go hand in hand with people having overdue medical debt and poor credit scores.”
Mississippi certainly fits that bill.
Top chronic conditions in Mississippi are high cholesterol, hypertension, arthritis, mental illness, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Forbes Advisor reported the state ranked in the bottom two positions for mortality rates for hypertension, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and kidney disease.
Van Dam also cited research that showed southern states that did not expand Medicaid suffered higher levels of medical debt than those that did. Most of those states are in the South.
Research shows that most chronic health conditions could be prevented by regular health check-ups. Yet many fail to get that care. Barriers include cost, not having a primary care provider, living too far from providers, and lack of awareness about recommended preventive services, according to the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
All of those barriers apply to Mississippi which has a critical shortage of physicians and a large population of uninsured and underinsured persons. When chronic conditions worsen, their care becomes more expensive. Indeed, many of these individuals show up in hospital emergency rooms which have far higher costs than preventive care.
The medical debt problem and sub-prime credit scores in Mississippi will only be compounded by rising credit card rates which jumped from 14.6% in February 2022 to 23.4% in February 2023. Forbes Advisor ranked Mississippi 6th among states struggling with high credit card debt.
Hmmm.
Wonder how many of our bottom rankings could be prevented?
“Sensible people will see trouble coming and avoid it” – Proverbs 27:12.
22 comments:
What the analysis leaves out is that most of the health issues cited are lifestyle related, specifically diet related. With all the unhealthy food that qualifies for EBT payment and the largest corporate benefactors of EBT being Tyson, Nestle, and Unilever….there is no hope to change things. While many will mourn that EBT prevents people from eating healthy, the truth is EBT should be limited to items that keep recipients from eating themselves to death. Chips, soda, and a whole host of high fat, processed food all qualifies for EBT. The result is high cholesterol, hypertension (leading to heart disease), diabetes (leading to kidney disease). These health issues then lead to SSI disability, medical debt, and higher mortality rates,but that’s the dirty secret people won’t discuss.
Correlation and causation are often inverted by indiscriminate analysts.
Then wouldn't it be a solution to set up internment camps for Mississippians who have high cholesterol, hypertension, arthritis, mental illness, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease? While they are interned, the State could restrict their diets and mandate physical exercises, each internee to be held until he or she reaches optimum BMI and has his or her eating and daily exercise habits modified; from there, prime credit ratings for these people would be but a step.
And I see massive numbers of jobs created here: personal trainers for all internees, camp commanders needed at each location, guards to keep the smugglers out and the internees in.
There is only a good side to such a program in Mississippi. Crawford would be an excellent choice for the directorship of such an endeavor.
Bill it’s also no surprise the poorest state gets the highest amount of federal funding than any other state. I think Mississippi is number 1.
So the argument here is basically that if poor black people in the south had their healthcare paid for by middle class taxpayers then those poor black southerners would have higher credit scores. Neat article man!
@11:13am Sarcasm noted.
Then the actual solution by implication would be to NOT subsidize EBT purchases at all. Natural consequences would encourage healthier eating, and they would not have to be forced by government to take care of themselves.
Food stamps/EBT Cards were never meant to "help" or "take care of" anyone - except to buy their vote.
11:12 took the words out of my mouth.
"top chronic conditions in Mississippi are high cholesterol, hypertension, arthritis, mental illness, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease."
They left out alcoholism and drug addiction.
@11:13's solution would likely be the least cost with the greatest benefits compared to society's current approach.
We have generations of people who the government has taken care of from cradle to grave. They've never been held accountable for providing any of life's necessities including housing and healthcare for themselves or families. Why would anyone expect someone coming from this background to be healthy and have good credit ?
Attach 100% tax on chips, soda, other processed trash food as well as wonderbread, pink slime weiners and fried foods. Use the tax for heath costs of "poor".
10:57 For the Win - however let me add that Crawford really does not understand the problem. There is a tremendous difference in "health care Insurance". Just because one has an Obama Care insurance policy means nothing - the deductibles cannot be paid by the policy owners, hence the poor credit ratings. Then the best medical practioners in the world cannot "make" their patients follow their medical advice. And Medicaid expansion is not the issue. No one, and this includes those both for and against expansion, have bothered to be honest about this. Crawford and all the other liberal elite need to get their act together and tell the whole story, but we all know that is not going to happen.
“Research shows that most chronic health conditions could be prevented by regular health check-ups. Yet many fail to get that care.”
Wrong. Most chronic health conditions could be prevented with exercise and a healthy diet.
This article seems to indicate that throwing money at the problem will fix it.
Dumb people make dumb decisions personally and financially. They go hand in hand.
11:12's admonition against "correlation = causation" reminds that such fallacious arguments are widely employed among those who hope to influence ignorant fools with flawed logic.
For example, Lil Choke, whilst holding forth spastically on steps of City Hall, argued that because Stokes and Foote had voted the same way to prefer WM, they were therefore both being bribed by WM, an utterly false conclusion.
1:17
You are correct. I’m just tired of my tax dollars paying for it
Inverted, transposed, mistaken and confused are often (pick one) by indiscriminate analysts.
It all comes down to education and training. If a person does not get an education or some training they are not going to get a job and will have a very poor credit score. Without a job Uncle Sam is going to have to foot the bill for their upkeep. When Uncle Sam foots the bill the people are going to buy junk as it isn't their money.
There is no way to make people get an education or training. They know Uncle Sam will pay for what they want so there is no incentive to get a job. Also they will lose street cred if they get an education and training. A job would ruin their standing in the street.
Bill-
You overlooked one MAJOR chronic condition— LAZINESS
You are assuming these people are unemployed and uneducated. These people are working the jobs you don’t want to at your favorite fast food restaurants, franchise stores and entertainment venues that you frequent. How unfortunate they are paid minimum wage and expected to afford premium healthcare benefits like the legislators that block Medicaid benefits for Low income Working adults. The article is saying that if one has healthcare they are more likely to get treatment for illnesses earlier and prevent medical debt from severe disease. It’s called compassion to help those less fortunate than yourself. Apparently there are bad guys and good guys amongst the poor and rich that take advantage of the govt. The stolen TANF monies is nothing in comparison to EBT money spent on Cheetos.
Bill - HEALTH CARE "INSURANCE" is different from "Health Care".
We all realize - well, actually many don't - that your constant bitching and writing about Medicaid Expansion (just like your new political buddy, Brandon Presley) has nothing at all to do with the health of Mississippians but rather it has to do with the "health" of your beloved hospitals. Many of whom are not dedicated, or even connected, to what you bemoan - the rural (publically owned) hospitals in our state. Those facilities that serve an outdated model - just as the buggy-whip manufacturers served a model that went south after Henry developed the Model T.
The "health" of Mississippians is not a function of whether Medicaid is expanded or whether Mississippians eat healthy or not. Whether Mississippians (the poor ones you point to) diet is healthy based on the funds they are given by the fed programs - EBT primarily - are good for their diet and health or what they prefer.
Whether Medicaid provides them an annual 'health checkup' - that determines that they are overweight, diabetic, whatever - tells them thats a problem is not the solution when their purchases at the checkout counter sliding across in front of my selections on the belt show the dramatic difference between what my Medicare benefits are paying for my minor malidaies compare to their cholestral, diabetic, heart, etc costs for the person in front of me ---- and their family ---- to Medicaid.
Much, much more to this story than your pathetic attempt to try again to push for your agenca.
Come back next week with something substantial.
I agree with just about everything said at 7:03, except the Cheetos thing. $100 million would by a helluvalotta Cheetos. Let’s not forget the meat plant and the Kemper County energy project either, which may be accurately described as welfare for the well-connected.
Reading Bill Crawford and Sid’s missives on this page linked to low IQ and developmental disabilities….. 😂
When our tax dollars STOP funding junk food ... candy, cakes, chips, sodas, etc - the health of the 'poor' will greatly improve. It's not rocket science. It is a money making cycle. Make them sick with the 'food products' aka fake food, give them more and more drugs to combat the problem they created.
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