Barbour's ‘State of the State' Monday 6 p.m.

By Donna Ladd Monday, January 21, 2008 5:26 p.m. CST

Gov. Haley Barbour's "State of the State" address will be tonight at 6 p.m., broadcast live on MPB. Read his verbatim prepared address on StateDesk.com.

ID: 98111
Comment: I can't get my comment to post on StateDesk, so I'll do it here. I have a question about this part: We should also take action to improve the health care situation for the tens of thousands of working Mississippians who arenҒt eligible for Medicaid but dont have private health insurance. Compared to the rest of the country, fewer Mississippi small businesses offer health insurance to their employees. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, only 24% of MississippiҒs businesses with fewer than 50 employees offer health insurance to their workers. The Census Bureau says 134,000 Mississippians work for small businesses that dont offer employer-sponsored health insurance. This is mostly because of the high cost of health insurance to small businesses. I propose helping people get health insurance through a voluntary Mississippi Health Insurance Exchange, and legislation will be offered this session to create this exchange and fund its small, initial operational cost. LetҒs help more Mississippians who work for small businesses have private health insurance. What kind of coverage would people get under the exchange? Would it be like a PPO, or would it be a discount plan like Ameriplan?
Author: LatashaWillis
Date: 2008-01-21T21:47:15-06:00

ID: 98112
Comment: I dunno why not. I'll talk to the iTodd. StateDesk is in beta, so it's great if y'all try it out before we take it to Stage 2.
Author: DonnaLadd
Date: 2008-01-21T21:48:26-06:00

ID: 98113
Comment: As for Barbour's program, I don't know. Will get you the answers, though. Adam is on it. Certainly, small businesses are hit hard by the lack of choices for our health insurance. We provide offer insurance to our employees, but it ain't cheap for us or them. I'm betting this will only help a small number of uninsured Mississippians, though. We'll see.
Author: DonnaLadd
Date: 2008-01-21T21:51:42-06:00

ID: 98114
Comment: When I try to post a comment on StateDesk, I get an error message that I must be registered to make a comment. When I try to log in, it says that my information is invalid. Then I tried to register, and it said that my username and screen name were taken. Not sure what's going on...
Author: LatashaWillis
Date: 2008-01-21T22:08:56-06:00

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