Conflating Medicaid with welfare is unfair comparison

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves’ disparaging tone when referring to Medicaid as “welfare” was a political theme we could’ve done without in this year’s gubernatorial race. The Republican governor began using that negative characterization of the Medicaid health insurance program when polling showed that Democratic challenger Brandon Presley was within only a few percentage points of overtaking Reeves. I am not aware of anyone who in conversation regularly combines the two programs as one and the same. The pejorative term “welfare” is one many of us would approve of being removed from our lexicon to start with, particularly in political battles overrun with the crankiness of this year’s Mississippi governor’s election.