Dispatches from Mississippi, the state with the worst outcomes, the poorest state, and the Blackest state.

Mississippi's largely white GOP leadership yearly refuses over $1 billion to expand Medicaid, provide care for 200k-300k working poor residents, and save rural hospitals. https://t.co/vMgR3D8pO4

— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) November 21, 2022

Voters in Mississippi, where hospitals are shutting down due to lack of expansion, would have been able to vote to expand Medicaid last Tuesday.

But two days after the campaign to put it on the ballot began, the MS Supreme Court struck down our entire ballot initiative process. https://t.co/MxAetVLehg

— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) November 15, 2022

Half of all the rural hospitals in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas are at risk of closing. Not expanding Medicaid has consequences. https://t.co/0NOdoNIoA0

— David States MD PhD (@statesdj) November 21, 2022

Top economists have forecasted Mississippi would receive $1.61 billion in federal funds for the first year of Medicaid expansion, which would have immense economic growth for the state of Mississippi. But state leaders continue to reject expansion. https://t.co/aPEQHy08BO

— Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) November 19, 2022

The highest infant mortality rates (death under 1 yo).

Above average maternal mortality rates (& the average is already too high).

1 of 12 states that never expanded Medicaid.

Lowest healthcare provider-to-resident ratio.

Highest percentage of Black residents.

Mississippi.

— uché blackstock, md (@uche_blackstock) June 25, 2022

“The only hospital we’ve got is on its deathbed.”

A rural hospital in the Mississippi Delta is struggling to keep its doors open as cash reserves plummet and patient traffic slows. https://t.co/aPomZwTwRk

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 20, 2022