End of the Session Summary for MSAAP 3-29-17 by Lynn Evans

Although continuing budget shortfalls affected much of what happened at the Legislature this year, MSAAP was able to help get a few good bills passed and a few bad bills killed.

First, the good news. None of bills that would have weakened Mississippi’s immunization requirements made it out of committee, in spite of intense pressure from those attempting to weaken state immunization law. Thank you to everyone who worked to make this happen.

SB 2724 which will add a requirement that all backseat car and truck riders must wear a seatbelt was passed by both houses and is now awaiting the Governor's signature. This bill required a lot of allies to reach final passage.

HB 460 that extends financial incentives for coroners for infant and child death scene investigations was passed by both houses and has been signed by the governor.

HB 494 creating a Maternal Mortality Committee under the auspices of the MSDH has been signed by the governor. HB 456 to extend the repealer on the MSDH’s Infant Mortality Reduction Collaborative also passed and was signed by the governor. This bill contained language that will continue to make 17-P more easily available to pregnant women who need it.

HB 1032 has been passed and signed by the governor. HB 1032 requires all providers who write prescriptions to register with the Prescription Monitoring Program of the State Board of Pharmacy. A related bill, HP 996, allows pharmacies to dispense an Opioid antagonist without individual prescription, has been passed and signed by the governor.

There were efforts to make the Department of Health a division of the Governor’s Office; these bills died. Adequate funding for the Department of Health was a major issue during the session. The final appropriation bill did leave the MSDH underfunded by about 30%, but also gave the State Health Officer and the Board of Health needed flexibility to move money around to protect essential public health services.

The Division of Medicaid received less draconian cuts than most other state agencies because of the generous 3 to 1 match in funding from the federal government. However, there were several efforts to decrease Medicaid expenditures by decreasing the number of beneficiaries. Of these, HB 1090 did pass in the final days of the session. Promoted as a data mining system to detect Medicaid beneficiary fraud, HB 1090 will not provide protections for qualified children from accidental removal from Medicaid rolls. The federal Affordable Care Act does have protections for infants and children, but state leaders are expecting most of the ACA to be gutted by the US Congress.

Other bills defeated early on that MSAAP supported were a ban on tanning bed use for everyone under age 18, all smoke free air and cigarette tax bills, and Medicaid expansion.

Thank you everyone who made calls, visited the Capitol, and contacted legislators to promote the MSAAP agenda. We are known at the Capitol as advocates for children and children’s health, and we showed that we are again this 2017 Legislative Session.