Jackson Free Press

Mississippi's Republican Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney sees few redeeming features of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. He doesn't make any bones about that. 
 Still, Chaney is enough of a realist to know that it isn't going away. So he's dealing with it, building an online insurance exchange where Mississippians will be able to shop for coverage--hopefully on a more competitive basis than the open market provides today.

His detractors, including Gov. Phil Bryant, have been making a lot of noise about Chaney's seemingly iron-clad decision, which doesn't faze Chaney one way or the other. He's of the opinion that Mississippi can do better for Mississippians than the federal government can, and he's sticking to his guns.

There's something about that attitude that is both attractive and repellent. Someone who can stand up for what he or she believes is always attractive--especially when they have a noble cause worth supporting (which is not to say insurance exchanges are noble). Yet, Chaney's stubborn, albeit informed, allergy to Obamacare makes him little better than the ideologues who oppose it on principle alone.

No doubt, you're as tired as we are of hearing about the statistics and cost estimates, so let's get down to the bottom line: people. Civilized societies take care of those who are least able to care for themselves. If we could start there when discussing whether to expand the state's Medicaid rolls, for example, we might actually make some progress.

Instead, Gov. Bryant and his team want to begin with the premise that Mississippi can't afford to provide health insurance for the state's half-million uninsured. That's simply the wrong end of the equation. It's imperative to the wellbeing of our state's economy to figure it out, just like we've figured out how to give corporations millions in tax cuts and other incentives to lure them to open doors in the state, for example. And here's the bottom line: Impoverished, sickly people do not make good workers; an ignorant populace does not make for good citizens.

Bryant need look no further than the report "Blueprint Mississippi Health Care: An Economic Driver," which the Mississippi Economic Council commissioned from New York City-based multinational consulting firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank at a cost of about $340,000.

"When businesses are making investment decisions, the health of the workforce is a factor," states the report. "The population must be healthier and have better access to care in order to be competitive in capturing private-
sector investment."

It's time for Mississippi's leadership to look seriously at solutions and figure out a way to make them work, instead of running to those who would give them yet another excuse to retain the status quo. Ideology isn't the answer. It never is. It's time to insure Mississippians.