Mississippi's Flawed Medicaid Waiver Proposal: Waiver Provides No Benefit to Most People the State Is Planning to Cut Off of Medicaid and Could Lead to Additional Medicaid Cuts Later

Publication Date: August 2004

Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Leighton Ku

Research Area: Health

Keywords: Economic projections; Health insurance; Health care costs; Elderly

Type: Report

Coverage: Mississippi

Abstract:

On September 15, Mississippi plans to stop providing Medicaid health coverage to tens of thousands of low-income retirees and people who are permanently disabled, a group known as Poverty-Level Aged and Disabled (or PLAD) beneficiaries. This policy, proposed by Governor Haley Barbour and approved by the Mississippi legislature, affects 65,000 people with PLAD coverage. The legislation also requires the state to seek permission from the federal government (in the form of a waiver of federal rules) to provide limited Medicaid coverage to some of the people who will lose coverage as a result of the eligibility rollback.

In defending the rollback, Governor Barbour has stated that the state’s waiver, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is now considering, would enable the state to continue providing coverage to the most vulnerable people who would be affected. However, the waiver is a highly inadequate substitute for the coverage that PLAD beneficiaries now receive. Further, it could create serious risks for tens of thousands of other poor seniors and people with disabilities who will remain on Medicaid.