Courtesy Mike Espy
“In Mississippi ... so many people lack preventative care because they are reticent to go to the doctor. … They don’t want to get a bill that they can’t pay,” Espy states.
Talking Health Care With Mike Espy The JFP Interview
August 19 - September 1, 2020 • jfp.ms
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n all the chaos of 2020, the 2018 special election that saw former U.S. Rep. and Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy returning to vie for national office seems a distant memory. That contest is a prologue to this fall’s rematch, one that touched on vastly different themes than those now troubling the nation. Of all the issues separating Espy from his opponent, Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, their approach to health care may represent the starkest divide. Certainly, it is the most resonant question in a year of anxiety and agony over the pandemic and the state of America’s public health. Medicaid expansion, a critical issue in last year’s statewide elections, looms large above all else but coronavirus. Espy sat down for a video chat with the Jackson Free Press to discuss the topic of health care: both his plans for achieving Medicaid expansion in Mississippi and his thoughts on the state and national response to the coronavirus pandemic.
by Nick Judin
You’ve stated that health care is your top priority and central to that is Medicaid expansion. Why is Medicaid expansion the achievement you say you want to be remembered for? Well, health care is the number-one issue in the campaign for the simple reason that it’s the number-one problem in Mississippi right now. We have incredibly awful health-care outcomes—obesity, hypertension, heart disease. All these things can be reduced with preventative care. And the reason in Mississippi that so many people lack preventative care is because they are reticent to go to the doctor. And that’s because they don’t want to get a bill that they can’t pay. So even when they have an emergency and go to the doctor and there’s a bill, they still can’t pay it. So now you have a bill that the rural hospital is sitting with that they didn’t cover. So they have reason to close. This one problem—if we were able
Former U.S. Rep. Mike Espy Party: Democrat Hometown: Yazoo City Age: 66 Profession: Attorney Education: B.A., Howard University in Washington, D.C., 1975; juris doctorate from University of Santa Clara Law School, California, 1978 Opponent: Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith to do something material and significant about this one problem, we would already do these things: We would undergird the rural hospitals, and we would close the chasm for uncompensated care.
(The hospitals would) have more reason to stay open. Number two, we would have more people with the confidence and the assurance that they could be seen medically, if they were able to have an emergency, they would be able to avail themselves of preventative care. And the third reason is that it’s going to drop the cost of medical care in Mississippi and the cost of prescription drugs. All those three things we could do right away if we had Medicaid expansion. I think Medicaid expansion is a fundamental tenet of Obamacare. In the majority of states in the country, they already have it. As Mississippi taxpayers we paid federal taxes; part of our tax bill goes to pay the cost of Medicaid expansion for California, Arizona, Massachusetts. So why don’t we have it? And now our sister states that are also similarly conservative, Oklahoma and Missouri, have now seen the light—they voted on a referendum for Medicaid expansion. If we were able to
