Medicaid Expansion: Mississippi Hospital Association Donation to Democrat Gubernatorial Candidate Ruptures Group

Members of the Mississippi Hospital Association have terminated their membership after it donated $250,000 to Democrat gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley.

In late April, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) terminated its membership with the Mississippi Hospital Association, citing a “misaligned strategic vision”:

Please be advised that we hereby terminate the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s membership in the Mississippi Hospital Association, effective immediately. We thoughtfully take this action due to recurring behavior including insufficient transparency around decision making, a misaligned strategic vision and lack of effective communication. While we see value in MHA as an organization, we have lost confidence in the current leadership.

UMMC’s exit from the hospital association as the Friends of Mississippi Hospitals PAC, the PAC for the hospital association, donated $250,000 to the Presley campaign. This is the largest donation the PAC has ever doled out.

UMMC did not comment in late April as to whether the donation affected their decision to leave the association.

Tim Moore, the Mississippi Hospital Association president and CEO, has said Presley is allegedly the only candidate for the governor’s office that supported hospitals.

Moore’s statement raises questions as the state legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves (R) approved $103 million in direct aid to hospitals in 2023 alone.

Moore later admitted the prospect of Medicaid expansion may play a part for the hospital PAC’s significant donation to Presley. He continued, noting he was not aware of a plan to donate to Reeves, who opposes Medicaid expansion.

Reeves said in April, “I have not changed my position on the expansion of Obamacare. Adding 300,000 additional people to welfare in our state is not the right path for Mississippi.”

Presley said, “We’ve turned back billions of dollars in Mississippi. Not because of policy. Only reason we’ve turned down federal dollars for health care in Mississippi is petty, partisan, cheap politics.”

Moore has supported a ballot initiative since 2021 and the hospital association has spent eight legislative sessions trying to enact Medicaid expansion.

Other hospitals quickly followed suit by exiting the Mississippi Hospital Association. Soon after UMMC’s exit, George Regional Health System in Lucedale, Memorial in Gulfport, and Singing River in Jackson County terminated their membership in the hospital association.

George Regional CEO Greg Harvard wrote to the association:

This letter will serve as notice that George Regional Health System and it affiliates (George and Greene County Hospitals) do hereby terminate its membership in the Mississippi Hospital Association, effective immediately. This action is a result of a realization that the Mississippi Hospital Association’s current leadership strategy is no longer able to effectively and productively represent George Regional Health System’s interest in various meaningful areas and in fact has become counterproductive.

The brouhaha between the hospitals and the Mississippi Hospital follows as Presley has boasted that it has raised more than any other Democrat candidate for governor in the Mississippi in its first reporting period for the 2023 election cycle. Although it has raised a significant campaign treasure trove, it still pails in comparison to Reeves’ campaign.

Moore appeared on the Gallo Show with host Paul Gallo in early May; Gallo asked what are the hospital association’s major accomplishments. Moore first cited Medicaid expansion, which has yet to be enacted in Mississippi.

“If you start looking at what we try to accomplish with our agenda, certainly the one and most important thing for all of our hospitals is Medicaid expansion,” Moore said. He continued, noting that the association has helped pass “good” legislation for hospitals and patients.