Mississippians Have Health Insurance; Republicans Upset

With only days remaining before the Affordable Care Act's open enrollment period ends, the stats for Mississippi are sluggish but gradually improving. Thousands of Mississippians now have private health insurance plans - including yours truly - and our state's Republican leaders still think this is a bad idea. Take, for instance, career-long government employee and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss). The senator is not happy that his constituents now have health insurance.

“This is yet another desperate attempt by the administration to persuade young people to enroll in the president’s unaffordable, unworkable, and unpopular policy,” Wicker said in a statement. “Rather than spending an inordinate amount of time and taxpayer dollars to roll out celebrity endorsements and slick advertisements, the president should work with Republicans to find real market-driven solutions to America’s health care crisis.”

The senator's comments are shameful. Let's keep in mind that he and his family have been eligible for government-subsidized health insurance since he was sworn into Congress back in 1995. While hundreds of thousands of Mississippians go without such luxuries, Wicker does not seem to care. Remember that Wicker has been collecting federal government benefits for nearly 20 years! How can he look at himself in the mirror knowing that he has one set of standards for three million Mississippians and a different set for himself?

In his 20 years in Congress, I have not heard of one instance where the senator has introduced a piece of legislation to address covering nearly 450,000 uninsured Mississippians or that he has developed a set of policy items that would be called a Republican health care alternative. He suggests that Republicans are banging down the doors of Democratic offices begging to help find solutions, while Wicker and his Republican colleagues refuse to recognize that they created and are exacerbating the problem. Mississippians of all political stripes should ask the senator what he has been able to deliver for uninsured Mississippians during his 20-year tenure in Washington. I suspect we will be left with more questions than answers.

Wicker's hypocritical and shortsighted comments remind us that Republicans have no passion to see Mississippi's uninsured get covered. It really is unfortunate - yet predictable - that the Republican Party fails to get its head out of the sand.

For those looking for information on how to get covered, please visit www.healthcare.gov or call 1-800-318-2596.