Mississippi's Congressional Delegation Divided Over HealthCare Reform Bill

President Obama addresses Congress on healthcare reform

Mississippi’s Washington delegation had mixed reactions to President Obama’s sweeping health care reform speech last night. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports

21% of Mississippians are uninsured, and almost 600,000 are enrolled in Medicaid. 2nd District Congressmen Democrat Bennie Thompson, says for those reasons alone the president’s healthcare proposal makes good sense for Mississippi,

“I’m convinced that our state, given how important healthcare is to us, we absolutely would benefit from this health care reform package outlined by President Obama.”

But Mississippi Congressmen, Republican Gregg Harper says if anything, the president’s speech made him more convinced that the proposed healthcare plan would not benefit Mississippi, and would only increase the deficit and create more red tape,

“What I’m afraid of is that this is going to create additional layers of regulation and create delay in getting the good care that we have access to.”

Mississippi’s senior Senator Republican Thad Cochran came away from the speech saying the first step to improving healthcare is to stop playing politics with it,

“I am convinced that we need to set aside the finger pointing and end the blame game. The president has given us some suggestions for reform and we should give them a chance to work.”

President Obama’s healthcare plan is expected to cost $900 billion dollars in the next ten years, but as the president pointed out in his speech last night there are still significant details to be worked out.