Failure to expand Medicaid to cost Greenville's Delta Regional $3.9M starting October 1

Well, it's not like Mississippi Democrats (and Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran) haven't warned everyone time and time again.  Today, the AP is running a story on how the Phil Bryant-led effort to prevent Medicaid expansion is going to severely impact Greenville's Delta Regional Medical Center.  According to DRMC CEO J. Stansel Harvey:

With federal reductions set to hit starting Oct. 1, Harvey said the Greenville hospital is anticipating a revenue loss of more than $3.9 million.

That's because the federal Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments to hospitals are being cut starting then.  Under the Affordable Care Act (which is federal law whether you like it or not), Medicaid expansion was to replace the DSH payments.  Of course, Gov. Bryant led legislative Republicans to reject even a compromise on Medicaid expansion that would have kept the federal money flowing into Mississippi. and he was mighty pleased with himself.  Let's see if he's still smiling as hospitals start laying off doctors and nurses and cutting services.

Is Greenville Mayor Heather McTeer Hudson really running against Rep. Bennie Thompson?

It certainly appears so. MajorityInMS.com broke the story yesterday. Rep. Thompson is enormously popular in MS-2, and running against him appears to be a suicide mission. Rep. Thompson has given no indication whatsoever that he is not seeking a 9th term. A 2nd District legislator, when asked to evaluate Mayor Hudson's move against Rep. Thompson was not kind.

Thinking through this, perhaps Mayor Hudson has been given some sort of signal by Rep. Thompson that he's not running for reelection. Back in February, Mayor Hudson announced that she would not be seeking a third term as mayor. Speculation was rampant that she was looking at running for the Democratic nomination for Lt. Gov., but her filing papers never appeared on deadline day. Turns out that nomination would have been hers if she'd wanted it as other potential candidates, like former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, begged off at the last minute. So does that mean that she got some sort of tip from Rep. Thompson that she needed to forego the Lt. Gov. race and qualify for MS-2? I doubt it, as Rep. Thompson has been, as MajorityInMS.com put it, raising money like he needs it.

This will be interesting, I'm sure. Stay tuned....

The race is on to fill the vacant Senate seat of Johnnie Walls

The citizens of Greenville will soon have a new voice in the state Senate. Today's race is between Gwen McClure, Dorothy Walls, and Derrick Simmons. All are from Greenville, and all are Democrats. Should be interesting to see who makes it out of this.