Jackson Free Press

More than 700 people gathered at the Jackson Convention Center yesterday, eager to understand how health care can be a driver for creating jobs and boosting revenues in Mississippi.

Gov. Phil Bryant led the daylong Governor's Health Care Economic Development Summit with calls to think big about developing medical corridors with the help of the Health Care Industry Zone Act. That law, which the state Legislature passed in 2012, provides incentives for health-care and related businesses that invest a minimum of $10 million within a 5-mile radius of acute-care hospitals and also employee 25 or more people. During the last session, lawmakers expanded the act to include certified Health Care Zone Master Plan Communities.

Just in time for yesterday's summit, Bryant announced that a dozen communities—from Bay St. Louis on the Gulf Coast to Holly Springs in north Mississippi's Marshall County—have achieved certification.

Bryant called his push to promote health care as an economic driver for Mississippi a "roadmap into the future," and called on attendees to "come together on what we agree on."

"Perfection must not be the enemy of progress," Bryant said.

The legislation and resulting activity across the state springs from the Mississippi Economic Council's long-term plans, called "Blueprint Mississippi." The MEC released the health-care-study portion of the plan last October. It commissioned New York City-based consulting firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank the conduct the study for about $340,000. "Blueprint Mississippi Health Care: An Economic Driver" analyzes where the state stands and outlines the steps necessary to create a vibrant health-care economy.

Two major driving forces for the plan's success—healthy citizens and a highly skilled workforce—received scant attention from the more than two-dozen speakers during yesterday's summit. Those missing pieces drew skepticism from Connie Moran, a former economic-development official and the mayor of Ocean Springs.

"It's ironic that in June, the Legislature voted to reject the federal dollars that would have provided 300,000 working Mississippians with access to affordable health care," she said.

Moran cited an Institutions of Higher Learning study that said the state would see 9,000 new jobs as a result of expanding Medicaid, in addition to providing health insurance to more than 300,000 working families. The IHL jobs figure exceeds the estimated 7,000 new jobs in the health-care zones announced Wednesday.

A single mother with a special-needs child, Moran has direct experience navigating the state's Medicaid system. She has also worked to recruit businesses with the Mississippi Development Authority and other economic organizations.

Moran indicated that continued lack of access can hamper the effort to remake Mississippi into the health-care Mecca envisioned by the governor. The state's residents routinely rank at the bottom of health studies, which dissuades companies considering the Magnolia State for business expansion.

"It's a prime factor," she said. "They're looking for an available, trained, healthy workforce because those things translate into high productivity. That affects their bottom line."