2023 Legislative Session

Written by John Dillon Harris, MPH
During the 2023 Legislative Session, the legislature focused on the state’s struggling healthcare system and the post-Roe world. After the session ended, 424 bills were passed into law1. The Center for Mississippi Health Policy identified 33 bills that
were signed into law after the 2023 session that will impact the health and wellness of Mississippians; these covered areas from hospital financing and the healthcare workforce to maternal and child health.… Read more...

Healthcare System Performance

The performance of Mississippi’s healthcare system is consistently ranked as one of the lowest in the nation. In 2013, the Center for Mississippi Health Policy (Center) published the report, “Healthcare System Performance: What Mississippi Indicators Reveal,” which included an analysis of national health system performance indicators and discussed the weaknesses of the state’s healthcare system. At the time, the state’s use of hospital care for chronic and preventable conditions was one of the highest in the nation, while the utilization … Read more...

Contraceptive Access, Choice, & Utilization: A Survey of Mississippi Women

 

Women in Mississippi experience high rates of unintended pregnancy, which can be associated with the use of less effective methods of contraception. In an effort to better understand how Mississippians access birth control generally, the Center for Mississippi Health Policy commissioned a survey of Mississippi women of reproductive age to understand what factors influence women’s choice of birth control methods and what barriers, if any, limit them in obtaining the method of their choice.

Survey respondents were recruited from … Read more...

Syringe Services Programs: Impact on the Spread of Communicable Diseases

Syringe Services Programs (SSPs) are community-based programs that provide access free of charge to sterile needles and syringes and facilitate safe disposal of used needles and syringes to prevent the spread of disease. Increases in injection drug use associated with the aftermath of the opioid crisis have led to greater interest in SSPs by federal and state policymakers.

While there is a growing body of research indicating that SSPs can be effective in reducing the spread of infectious diseases and … Read more...