Gov. Tate Reeves, running for a second term this year, is traveling the state vowing he’ll continue to block Medicaid expansion, a policy that would provide health coverage to at least 200,000 working Mississippians and bring at least $1 billion in new annual revenue to the state.
A powerful fellow Mississippi Republican Party leader appears to have had enough of his defiance.
Presumptive new Speaker of the House Jason White told Mississippi Today last week that Medicaid expansion would be on the table in the 2024 legislative session. White’s remarks sparked an earth-rattling flash in a state that has resisted expansion for more than 10 years.
In just one interview, the likely new House speaker bucked his party’s leader in a prolific way. But the candor of White’s statement was telling in itself. He acknowledged that his own party was being rightfully criticized for not being willing to even discuss expansion. It was a brutally honest, almost self-deprecating statement, the likes of which are rarely seen in modern politics.
And it was a clear contrast in how Reeves has long discussed and handled the issue.
“I think we as Republicans have probably earned a little bit of the bad rap we get on health care in Mississippi,” White said in a Thursday interview with Mississippi Today. “Part of that is that we haven’t had a full-blown airing or discussion of Medicaid expansion. We’ve just said, ‘No.’