‘Poor folks trying to make it as best we can’: surviving Mississippi’s miserly healthcare system – By April Simpson (The Guardian) / December 16, 2021
The poorest and blackest state in the US declined to expand Medicaid, leaving many citizens without coverage
This story was published in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit news organization that investigates inequality.
Jabriel Muhammad pays up to $40 when he sees a doctor at the community health center in Jefferson county in rural south-western Mississippi. And he goes to the center only when he is really ill. But there’s another price to pay for not having health insurance. In October, he was hit with a $1,394 hospital bill for an MRI scan to diagnose why he wasn’t breathing properly.
“We’re poor folks trying to make it as best we can,” said Muhammad, a 40-year-old self-employed carpenter and plumber. “If I make $10,000 with the work that I do in a year, that’s a nice feeling to me.”
In Mississippi, the poorest and blackest state in the US, single adults without children like Muhammad are not eligible for public health insurance, regardless of how little they earn each year. If he lived 30 miles west in Louisiana, across the Mississippi river, he could afford to see a doctor more often.
CONTINUE > https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/dec/16/mississippi-miserly-healthcare-system
