WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS: Hospitals could depend on cigarette tax passing next session

Hospitals could depend on cigarette tax passing next session

By Jon Kalahar - bio | email

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - Earlier this month, both the King's Daughter Hospital in Brookhaven and the River Oaks System in central Mississippi announced plans to layoff hospital staff.

Virtually every other hospital across Mississippi has ordered a temporary hiring freeze.

Patient care is said to be unaffected...for now.

All this because the national and state economy is on life support. But a possible cure may come from an unlikely source.

"I think the shortages we've seen just put an additional burden on those people to provide health care under less than desirable circumstances," said Rikki Garrett, Mississippi Nurses Association.

The executive director of the Mississippi Nurses Association, Rikki Garrett says nationwide hospitals are working with fewer nurses than they need. Now, it gets tougher.

"They're having to work longer hours or with less support staff," said Garrett.

Still, jobs cut have been in administration, technical and environmental services not patient care. Hospitals are seeing decreases in hospital stays, while visits to the emergency rooms are up.

"What we're going to be seeing in these tough economic times are more people losing coverage but they'll still be going to their e-r rooms without health care coverage," said Roy Mitchell, Mississippi Health Advocacy Program.

But what could pull hospitals our of this trouble will be debated at the state capitol next legislative session. Advocates say how much legislators decide to raise the cigarette tax could go a long way to helping hospitals.

Roy Mitchell and the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program along with others are pushing lawmakers to increase the cigarette tax to one dollar. A one dollar tax would raise 174 million dollars in revenue.

"We have been leaving untold millions of dollars on the table that could be going to health care," said Mitchell.

Mitchell says his group's polling shows Mississippians favor a one dollar tax increase to be ear marked for healthcare. But it remains to be seen if public opinion will change public policy.

Governor Haley Barbour supports a 24 cent increase to the cigarette tax with the money raised going to the general fund. Earlier this year, he once again proposed a hospital assessment tax to raise the money to fill the yearly Medicaid deficit.