Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.
If Mississippi has taught me anything, it’s that federal policy rarely trickles down as promised. For people with disabilities, especially in our state, Medicaid isn’t a political talking point—it’s survival.
Medicaid pays for in-home support, daily nursing care, medications, equipment and community access. Without it, the alternative is often institutionalization, isolation or worse.
But under the Trump administration’s proposed budget, this vital program is facing devastating cuts. Medicaid is on the chopping block, and Mississippi is standing directly in the path of the blade.
Recently, I spoke with a mother in the Mississippi Delta whose son has a rare degenerative condition. He’s nonverbal, uses a wheelchair and needs help with every aspect of daily life. For the past three years, Medicaid has provided her a modest stipend to be his paid caregiver—allowing her to stay home, care for him full-time and keep him out of a facility 90 miles away.
“If they cut this program,” she told me, “I’ll have to go back to work. But no one else can care for him. What happens to him then?”
She already knows the answer: He’ll be institutionalized. Not because he needs to be — but because that’s the only option left when Medicaid collapses and the community-based care disappears.
The Kaiser Family Foundation ranks Mississippi as one of the states most vulnerable to federal Medicaid cuts. We rely on federal funds for nearly three-quarters of our Medicaid budget. Unlike wealthier states, we don’t have the cushion (or the political will) to fill the gap if that money disappears.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Advocate: Medicaid was meant to be a lifeline. In Mississippi, it’s on life support. )
Also on site :