Phil Bryant Sets Up Dangerous Situation

The United States Supreme Court will soon rule whether it is permissible for Mississippians to receive a tax credit in order to help pay for their health insurance. This is a case with huge implications for tens of thousands of Mississippians who risk losing their health care coverage. The person caring the least about this is Republican Governor Phil Bryant.

As of March 2015, over 75,000 Mississippians receive a tax credit to help pay their health insurance costs. This could all be in jeopardy if the Supreme Court rules against the tax credits. The backup plan from Republicans is nonexistent.

Republican Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney once worked to build a state-based insurance marketplace, but the stubbornness of Phil Bryant killed Chaney's proposal. Thus, Bryant's poor decisions have led us to this precarious (and avoidable) position.

House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) and Governor Bryant,
likely not talking about helping Mississippians get health insurance

For Phil Bryant and the Republicans, it has never been about the Mississippians that are being helped by having health insurance. To them, it is all about making a political statement despite the fact that we have a higher uninsured rate than the national average. Phil Bryant and his Republican Party have done everything within their power to make sure thousands of Mississippians have no health insurance coverage.

Commissioner Chaney summed up the shortsighted, politics-only views of Phil Bryant with this quote:

“He’s got a pretty good approval rating, and he doesn’t have a real strong opponent,” Mr. Chaney said. “So he’s just not worried.”

More on Gunn's Misleading Statements

Friday, we noted Speaker Philip Gunn's comments about the start of Mississippi's health insurance marketplace. It's clear Gunn did not do his homework.

He noted that health insurance costs are among the highest in the nation. What Gunn did not point out is that insurance companies providing plans on the new marketplace will start offering premium rates that are on par or lower than plans not in the marketplace. For example, if you are a 26-year-old who is transitioning from your parents' health insurance to your own plan, you will find that premium rates are likely to be lower in the new market than they are today. Early reports indicate that, in some instances, individuals can obtain coverage for nearly $75 per month, after tax credits are included.

This is important to note because Gunn neglected to factor in tax credits that will help bring down the cost of the plan. When you take a plan offered on the market and calculate in the tax credits, you end up with rates lower than what Gunn is making up.

Gunn stated his belief that "We should work with providers to reduce the cost of  healthcare." Again, this goes back to Gunn not doing his homework. The Affordable Care Act has systems in place to help do just that. There are provisions in place to enhance coordinated care, clamp down on fraud and duplicative billing, avoid unnecessary hospital readmissions, encourage use of health information technology, and utilize best practices. These, among other tools, are helping to bring down the cost of health care. Data show that between 2009 and 2011, the cost of health care rose around three percent. That is the lowest rate of growth since records were kept going all the way back to 1960, three years before Gunn was born.

The Speaker concluded his statement by making it clear as a bell what his Tea Party political philosophy is all about. Gunn stated "It is not the government's job to take care of its citizens." For folks like Gunn and the Tea Party, they really mean that it is every man or woman for himself or herself. It's why they oppose the Affordable Care Act the way they do; the bill puts more consumer protections in place to help ordinary Mississippians fight against a system that is stacked against the average person.

Since the bill was signed into law in 2010, Gunn, Phil Bryant, and their Tea Party cohorts have been doing everything in their power to discredit, delay, dismantle, and disable it. Gunn and the Tea Party have been hoping for failure since the outset. Sadly, it is the nearly 500,000 Mississippians currently without health insurance coverage who end up taking the hits because of Gunn and the Tea Party's out-of-touch attitude.

Gunn's Comments on Health Insurance Miss the Mark

Speaker Philip Gunn, Tea Party leader

Earlier today, Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) offered his thoughts about the activation of the health care marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act which goes into effect October 1.

There are so many inaccuracies in his statement it is difficult to know where to begin. If someone were to rewrite it to reflect reality, it would look something like this:

Thanks to my refusal to pass a state-based health insurance plan that Commissioner Mike Chaney and his staff worked on for months, health care premiums are among the highest in the nation. We could have had a solution tailored to Mississippi to fix our health care system, but I was beholden to my tea party base to allow that to happen.

What Gunn refuses to admit is that his own actions during the June special session have resulted in the federal government managing Mississippi's health insurance marketplace. Democrats in the Legislature offered an amendment to establish a state-based exchange, but Gunn and his loyal Tea Party followers in the House defeated it. You can check out the vote for yourself here.

Gunn goes on to say that the law hasn't fulfilled its promises. The thing is: the bill hasn't fully been implemented yet! He's admitting defeat before anything has happened. He makes a point that health insurance premiums will be among the highest in the nation. Commissioner Chaney noted that this is the case because there is no competition among Mississippi's health insurance companies to bring down costs.

Once again, Gunn reminds us that he, Governor Bryant, and their Tea Party colleagues do not care to learn the facts about the law and how their abdication of power to the federal government has us in the position we find ourselves today. If Gunn is truly looking for Mississippi solutions, perhaps he should not be part of the problem.

$8 for insurance? Miss. Marketplace premiums released

Cover Mississippi, a statewide coalition to education Mississippians about new health insurance laws, sent out a press release today highlighting findings from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on the highly-anticipated health insurance marketplaces. The study anticipates costs before and after tax credits.

From Cover Mississippi:

The findings show that a 27-Year-Old living in Jackson may pay out of pocket only $8 a month for a bronze-level premium that covers all preventive services, most primary care visits, and limits out of pocket costs that may result from an accident or severe illness.  

The statewide bronze-level premium average for the same age group is $75 a month. That means for the first time many young Mississippians will be able to afford a quality health plan for less than the costs of their smartphone bill.  

Very exciting news for Mississippians - especially young people who are not getting the preventative care they need now to limit or even eliminate catastrophic issues later in life. The full report can be found here.

Health Insurance Marketplace Update

With less than two month to go until open enrollment begins in the Mississippi health insurance marketplace, as provided for under the Affordable Care Act, it might be helpful to get an update on where things stand.

Rather than do a lot of reading about an issue that we have heard so much about over the past five years, the good folks at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation developed a short, objective video of what is in store for the health marketplaces when they come online next year.

Another nugget from the Kaiser Family Foundation is an interactive map, which you can find here, that shows what Mississippi and the rest of the country would look like if each state expanded Medicaid coverage for those who cannot obtain coverage from the state marketplace. As you can see, nearly 250,000 Mississippians would have coverage, including roughly 9,000 in my home of Rankin County.

It merits mentioning that state Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshall Mike Chaney worked tirelessly over the last few years to establish a state-based insurance exchange. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful in in efforts due to the intransigence of Governor Bryant. Recently, Chaney was able to work with insurance providers to establish coverage in all 82 counties in the state.

Notes from the Bar Convention

From Facebook earlier today:

David Baria Campaign

I just ran into Haley Barbour at the MS Bar Convention and he reminded me that the MS Senate voted for a state-run health insurance exchange 5 times under Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant. Now Phil is against it.

MS Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole's statement on rising student loan rates and the healthcare exchange

The following email was sent from the Mississippi Democratic Party today. In it, Chairman Rickey Cole discusses the failure of Republicans to avoid a sharp increase in student loan interest rates and their vote to block the creation of a Mississippi-run healthcare exchange.  Both of these things are going to cost Mississippians more money each month, and both were easily avoided.  Here's the email:

Friends,

Today, student loan rates on our future college students doubled. Why? The Republican “leadership” in the U.S House has no control over its extreme tea party infused caucus. They may even be in worse shape than our tea party run state legislature.

As Congress sits on its hands, future loan rates on students will double. The problem is the tea party caucus, of which Mississippi Congressman Steven Palazzo is a member, will not support any reasonable legislation. They would rather let the rate double, raising the burden felt by future college graduates, all in the name of deficit reduction.

This is as outrageously incompetent as the House GOP here in Mississippi killing a Democratic amendment last week to create a health insurance exchange, based here and operated by our Insurance Commissioner. Republicans, under the fantasy belief that they are somehow blocking an exchange, killed the Democratic effort. The result? Mississippi will still be getting a health insurance exchange, except one run by Washington instead of Jackson.

In Washington, action on everything from Education to the Farm Bill continues to be stalled by a small group of extreme tea party Republicans who have control over their caucus. Here in Jackson, action on jobs, education, and health care have been stalled and hindered for the same reason.

It is imperative that we work to defeat these extreme Republicans, removing power from the reckless and putting it back where it belongs, in the hands of common sense.

Our opportunity starts now! Please donate to help us build a better future for our common sense Mississippians who simply want reasonable and sensible policy solutions. Every minute the tea party continues to hold power, our students and our hard working middle class families lose.
You can also help our cause by joining our Yellow Dog Club, Finance Council, or Chairmans Council today!

The fight for our future starts now!
Your friend,

Rickey 

Want to know why the vote on the insurance exchange was a big deal? Let Kaiser tell you

Gov. Phil Bryant and his merry band of dullards in the Mississippi House really stuck it to the citizens of Mississippi this time. Last week during the Medicaid special session, an issue came to the House floor by way of amendment that was pretty unexpected. The House Democrats, in addition to getting a vote on Medicaid expansion, also got a vote on creating a state-run insurance exchange.

Here's the whole thing in a nutshell:  The Affordable Care Act created something called "health care exchanges", which are online marketplaces where people can go to purchase health insurance at reduced rates.  A Republican idea, each state was to create and manage its own exchange, subject to initial federal approval.  Gov. Haley Barbour (R) was on board, and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney (R) went to work putting the Mississippi exchange together.  Then Gov. Bryant came into office, and said Mississippi wouldn't be running its own exchange.  That move left the federal government in charge of running the Mississippi exchange.

Well, the federally-run Mississippi exchange only has one insurer participating, and that insurer has decided not to sell its plan in 36 of our 82 counties.  That means that, come October 1, some of us will have access to cheaper health insurance, and some of us won't. (Click here to see who gets to pay more.) The way to fix that is to revive Chaney's exchange, which would have provided access to all Mississippians.

Don't believe me?  Here's what Kaiser Health News had to say:

Tens of thousands of uninsured residents in the poorest and most rural parts of Mississippi may be unable to get subsidies to buy health coverage when a new online marketplace opens this fall because private insurers are avoiding a wide swath of the state. 

No insurer is offering to sell plans through the federal health law’s marketplaces in 36 of the state’s 82 counties, including some of the poorest parts of the Delta region, said Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney. 

As a result, 54,000 people who may qualify for subsidized coverage would be unable to get it, estimates the Center for Mississippi Health Policy, a nonpartisan research group.
Many make a living picking soybeans, working on tree farms or in fast food restaurants, earning too little to buy coverage on their own. 

... 

Insurers currently sell policies in all 36 counties – and are expected to continue to do so next year – but only outside of the new marketplaces. Subsidies are available only through the marketplaces, so those sold outside of it come with no subsidy, and many residents are unlikely to purchase them without one.

(Oh, and before you get all upset, these subsidies that are being referenced are federal subsidies, not state ones.  So there's not a dime of state money being discussed here.)

But of course, it simply wouldn't do to let this Barbour-born and Chaney-bred idea go into effect in all Mississippi counties.  Oh, no.  If you want to see how your representative voted on the issue of leaving Mississippians in 36 counties in the cold, click here.

The map showing which Mississippians get to pay more for health insurance

The Mississippi House Republicans, under the leadership of Speaker Philip Gunn (R - Clinton), voted last week to stick with a federally-run health insurance exchange rather than implementing the exchange created by Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney (R).  That federally-run exchange doesn't cover all Mississippians, meaning that folks in the covered counties will be able to purchase insurance at a much lower rate than folks in the excluded counties.  Here's a map that shows which Mississippians will have to pay much more each month for health insurance.  If you live in a blue county, you're fine.  But if you live in a brown county, you're getting hosed by Gov. Bryant and the House Republicans, who are against the Chaney exchange.

Map of Mississippi Counties left out of Federal Exchange

Washington to Mississippi: Your healthcare exchange doesn't pass muster

The Department of Health and Human Services has rejected the proposed Mississippi health insurance exchange, which has been a point of contention among Mississippi Republicans of late.  Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney (R) had overseen the development of the exchange, and would have been responsible for running the exchange.  Gov. Phil Bryant (R) has been against the creation of an exchange, arguing (without evidence) that creating an exchange would somehow require Mississippi to expand Medicaid (which is a good idea anyway).