One of the biggest challenges facing Mississippians is the limited public health care provisions for parents. Medicaid is restrictively low with eligibility levels at 46 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. Outside of Medicaid, Mississippi has no state health insurance program for parents. Moreover, the continual decline of employer-sponsored health insurance and the prohibitive costs of private health insurance have led many Mississippians to forego health coverage altogether. This situation has negative consequences not only for the health of parents, but for their family's economic security and well-being. This brief uses results from the Family Resource Simulator to analyze Mississippi's work support policies. It also identifies gaps in parental health insurance coverage and recommends policy reforms that could expand coverage among Mississippi's working parents
