Speaker, lieutenant governor agree to hold Medicaid expansion negotiations in public

The House’s expansion plan aims to expand health care coverage to upwards of 200,000 Mississippians, and accept $1 billion a year in federal money to cover it, as most other states have done. The Senate, on the other hand, wants a more restrictive program, to expand Medicaid to cover around 40,000 people, turn down the federal money, and require proof that recipients are working roughly 30 hours a week. If the lawmakers, called conferees, cannot reach an agreement, the bill would die. But if they do reach an accord, the revised bill, called a conference report, gets brought back to the full Senate and House again for consideration. The joint rules of the Legislature, which the vast majority of lawmakers voted in favor of this year, state that all official conference committee meetings “shall be open to the public at all times.”