Mike Chaney, who has already announced he does not plan to run for reelection as Mississippi’s insurance commissioner in 2027, is certainly not acting like a lame duck.
Chaney plans to lobby the Legislature to change his job from elected to appointed, saying that would better ensure the person is qualified and insulate him or her from the conflict of raising campaign funds from an industry the insurance commissioner regulates.
Chaney also, in an odd twist, is threatening to sue the federal government over a policy that requires the governor of a state to support the creation of a state-based health insurance exchange before the feds will sign off on its creation.
Chaney says he would take this step because of Gov. Tate Reeves’ potential opposition to creating a state exchange to replace the federal platform Mississippi residents have had to use to purchase the subsidized coverage made available by the Affordable Care Act.
A state exchange, according to Chaney, would be better for the insured as well as the state. State exchanges typically attract more companies to write policies, thus increasing the choices available to those shopping for coverage. A state exchange also could save Mississippi millions of dollars from what it is currently paying to the federal government to use the federal platform.
If Chaney has a beef for the holdup, though, it’s with Reeves, not the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Chaney’s fellow Republican is the one not being responsive to the insurance commissioner’s proposal.
Although Reeves has not provided an explanation why, it’s not hard to guess the governor’s reason. He has been stubborn about anything to do with the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, during the decade it’s been around. He has worked hard to keep Mississippi from expanding Medicaid to cover the mostly working poor. It doesn’t matter how nonsensical it is for the poorest, unhealthiest state to reject the federal government’s offer to pay most of the cost of providing coverage to the uninsured. Reeves has been able to score political points in this heavily Republican state by vilifying a program that is closely associated with a former Democratic president.
The GOP-controlled Legislature, which has slowly warmed to Medicaid expansion, would probably have to bypass Reeves to get it enacted as long as he is in office. Chaney, though, has no way to override the governor to start a state exchange. Instead, he would have to coerce the federal government to drop a policy that could allow Reeves to stand in the way.
