Jackson Free Press

Barring disaster, the special legislative session will begin May 21. Gov. Haley Barbour sent an e-mail out to legislators saying the special session will deal with up to eight topics, from metal recycling to voter ID. Though the special session does not address Medicaid, Barbour's top priority on that list of things to do needs to involve funding the program.

Opinions between the House and the governor haven't changed since the session ended a few weeks ago. The House still wants to fund Medicaid through a tobacco tax increase because the current tax of 18 cents per pack isn't discouraging anybody from smoking, while smokers' health issues are piling on more hospital costs to the state. Former tobacco lobbyist Haley Barbour likes the tax where it is, and proposed during the regular session to fund Medicaid through extra fees on hospitals that could be transferred to a tax on hospital beds for non-Medicaid eligible patients.

Democrats in the House will look like the good guys in this argument, because nobody wants to face a hospital bill that's any higher than it already is. Barbour will likely continue to rant "no new taxes," while endorsing the new tax on patients if it will spare big tobacco from suffering any financial losses.

The key to this issue may be a compromise. A 50-cent tax will raise the state's revenue, even if the hike will not fully fund the Medicaid shortfall, or discourage smoking on the level desired by anti-smoking advocates. The move would deflate Democrats' name-calling and show that the governor is not still an acting tobacco lobbyist while holding government office. The compromise could also ameliorate any revenue pulls from other parts of the state budget. Perhaps the tax on hospital beds will not sting so hard with extra money coming in from the tobacco tax increase to soften it.

Funding Medicaid is going to be a tough issue all around. Even Barbour knows this. His call, again, does not specifically set Medicaid as an agenda item. Barbour may yet add the issue to the agenda before the end of the session, but the issue has to be addressed. The program needs at least $170 million in extra money to run without deficits for fiscal year 2009.

Legislators, it's time to think hard about the state of health care in Mississippi, and the constituents who elected you to represent their interests. Nobody's asking for unconditional surrender, just a compromise.