That effort died at the 11th hour in the 2024 session after the Senate, led by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, failed to agree specifics on a House-led plan that would provide healthcare coverage to hundreds of thousands of Mississippians.
A large part of that failure were doubts surrounding whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, would approve the state’s expansion of the program with a work requirement attached.
But Republican Jason White of West, speaker of the Mississippi House, believes a new administration under president-elect Donald Trump could mean new policies in CMS, especially relating to work requirements.
White says that will likely shape how the House structures a Medicaid expansion bill this session.
“I'd be remiss if I didn't say we're going to pump the brakes and figure out where a Trump administration is on these issues. While I do think there is a path forward, with 40 states that are covering low income workers this way, I do think the dynamics of how they're covered could change,” White said.
“I see folks who aren’t covered as a detriment to our healthcare economy and to our state, and we have a unique opportunity to craft something that is in-step with something a Trump-led CMS would want to do. If they’re going to reform the system, we don’t have to blow something up. We can start from scratch and get there.”
White's counterpart in the Senate, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, says he’d also like to see Medicaid expanded, albeit with a work requirement attached.
Both leaders are also prioritizing long-standing questions over possible tax cuts.
That includes Mississippi's personal income tax and an additional 7% sales tax included with groceries, the highest rate in the nation.
But leading into the 2025 session, White and Hosemann offered separate plans to address each.
Speaking before the Stennis Capitol Press Forum on Jan. 6, Hosemann proposed reducing Mississippi’s personal income tax in stages, from 4% to 3%, over the next four years. He also suggested cutting the grocery tax to 5% immediately.
“The way you do that is the same way we've been doing it: the gradual, conservative fiscal policy is a key towards maintaining education and everything else we have to do in this state. And as we go forward, we're going to propose that we continue to eliminate the income tax which will bring it also to being the second lowest tax state in the country that charges taxes,” Hosemann said.
Jason White, the speaker of the House, wants to cut the grocery tax in half, to 3.5%, during this session, as well as do away with the personal income tax completely.
Both White and Hosemann also expect reforms to the state's retirement system, youth courts and a possible revival of the ballot initiative to feature prominently, in addition to providing suffrage to those convicted of non-violent felonies.
