From dummy bill to Hail Marys: How Mississippi’s Medicaid expansion efforts failed

As the 2024 Mississippi legislative session gaveled open in January, it appeared to be the start of a new era. Many Capitol observers expected it to mark an end of several years of intense GOP in-fighting between the House and Senate — led by former Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, respectively.It also appeared a boon for an issue that had loomed for a decade over Mississippi’s poor, sickly population and struggling hospitals: Medicaid expansion and the billions of