Nearly 400,000 Mississippians are without health insurance according to the state’s insurance commissioner Mike Chaney. He says 99,000 residents signed-up for health insurance coverage for this year through healtcare.gov known as the Affordable Care Act. He is concerned what ending the program would mean for the state if done immediately.
“It would be catastrophic. I’m telling you it would be catastrophic for the courts to rule that the plan is unconstitutional effective immediately right then. If that were to happen it would throw this whole country and the healthcare system into chaos,” said Chaney
The Trump Administration is seeking to end the health insurance program arguing it’s unconstitutional. Mississippi is among the states that joined in the lawsuit. The specter of the high court challenge hasn’t stopped Dennis McDonald and his staff with the nonprofit My Brother’s Keeper from signing people up for health insurance through the ACA.
“We hope it doesn’t happen because we have a lot of people who are not insured and are under insured. And our goal is to get everybody with the best healthcare especially you see with COVID going on. There are a lot of healthcare concerns going on in our community,” said McDonald.
Enrollment for next year began November 1. Insurance officials say the majority of Miss- issippians who sign up for coverage receive tax credits which makes premiums affordable. Commissioner Mike Chaney says he’s working on options should the program be ruled unconstitutional including discussing Medicaid expansion with lawmakers.
