Just across the Mississippi River bridge from Natchez are the Louisiana towns of Vidalia, Ferriday and other communities where there are people who have health care coverage through the expansion of Medicaid.
Those Louisianans, if they are in the correct Medicaid health care network, can obtain medical services across the bridge in Mississippi at Merit Natchez hospital. People in Mississippi, of course, also can receive health care at Merit, one of the largest health care providers in southwest Mississippi.
But those Mississippians cannot take advantage of Medicaid expansion to help pay their medical bills because Mississippi, unlike Louisiana, does not have Medicaid expansion.
“Expanding Medicaid was Gov. (John Bell) Edwards’ first official act when he took office in 2016,” Laura Leist, a spokeswoman for the Democratic governor, told Mississippi Today via email. “He often says it’s the easiest big decision he’s made as governor.”