POLITICAL LEDGER

Moak blasts hospital bailout, bill sent back to commitee

Geoff Pender
The Clarion-Ledger

A bill to allow Attala County to borrow up to $5 million to keep Montfort Jones Hospital afloat until Baptist-Health Systems could take it over was sent back to committee for more debate by the state House on Thursday.

House Bill 1418 had been passed by the Ways and Means committee on Wednesday.

The hospital last year laid off workers and closed its intensive care unit.

Democrats have criticized the measure, and say the hospital's problems are a result of Gov. Phil Bryant and other Republican leaders blocking expansion of Medicaid per the federal Affordable Care Act.

On Thursday, House Democratic Leader Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, issued a statement on the hospital bill:

Representative Jason White (R-West) and Representative Bobby Howell (R-Kilmichael) have authored legislation that would have Attala County's 19,000 taxpayers pick up the tab for keeping Montfort Jones hospital afloat through a 5 Million Dollar Bond Issue. HB 1418, passed in the House Ways and Means Committee, also provides authority for the hospital to seek bankruptcy protection under the legislation.
In defending the legislation during a hearing on the bill, Rep. White proposed blame for the hospital's current financial problems on Hospital Trustees, County Supervisors and even a local medical clinic for the financial problems Monfort Jones now faces.
A 2013, study conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham provided details of benefits that could be afforded to the region in which Attala County was grouped if the legislature would adopt expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The Morrisey and Becker study showed federally funded healthcare dollars in the amount of $30 Million per year ($224 Million from 2014-2020) would flow to the counties in the region, including Attala County. That same study said the region would create 500 new jobs and see $50 Million annually in new economic activity.
State House Minority Leader Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, speaks on the chamber floor during debate at the state Capitol on Tuesday.
Representatives Howell and White led the legislative effort to reject the federal funding that would have helped Monfort Jones and other hospitals in the state, many of which are now laying off personnel, cutting back services or preparing to close."
Rep. Moak added, "Democrats have been warning this would happen to hospitals because Republican legislators chose to tow the party line rather than vote to help their community hospitals. Now the party line votes those legislators made time after time in the last few years are costing them their local hospitals and the jobs and economic activity they bring."