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Cameron tackles critical issues: Medicaid, trauma care funding.

Article Excerpt
For 39 years, Sam Cameron has tackled controversial issues such as the Medicaid shortfall debate going on now in the Mississippi Legislature. In 2009, he will celebrate four decades at the Mississippi Hospital Association, presiding as only the second leader in the statewide association's 77 years of existence.

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The Mississippi Business Journal caught up with Cameron during a busy week that included the association's annual leadership conference to ask about the more pressing issues facing the 100-plus hospital member organization.

Mississippi Business Journal: Funding the Medicaid shortfall continues to be a controversial issue, particularly since gross charges from Medicare and Medicaid at rural hospitals average more than 75% of billings. What is MHA's take on funding the Medicaid deficit?

Sam Cameron: From the beginning, we've said what is needed is a long-term funding solution, not a patch. We've supported a higher cigarette tax to fund

Medicaid, but we also supported a cigarette tax when the funds were not earmarked for Medicaid. It's a public health issue. The hospital tax plan that we developed with...

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