A special session has produced civil justice legislation, butmembers of the House of Representatives return to the CapitolMonday afternoon for another look at an ongoing debate over theDepartment of Human Services and Medicaid coverage.

Senators wrapped up their part of the session Friday aftersending the House a bill to reauthorize the DHS for another year.Members of the House can either concur or not concur with thebill.

“If they do not concur, the governor will have to call us back,”said Dist. 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, although she did not expectthat would be immediately.

There has been some question whether the DHS and Medicaid issuescould be brought up under the special session agenda. House leadersbelieve that the issues are valid.

At issue is language added in a House bill that would extendMedicaid coverage for about 65,000 recipients. Regular sessionlegislation shifted many of those recipients to Medicare.

However, Dist. 53 Rep. Bobby Moak said that program doesn’tcover the same things as Medicaid. He said some recipients’ drugbills exceed their monthly income and they need the Medicaidhelp.

“We can’t leave these people hanging,” Moak said. “We have aduty to take care of these folks.”

Moak said congressional action would not remove the Medicaidrecipients for another 18 months. The state has the money tocontinue covering recipients and could address the federal changelater, he said.

“For the here and now, we have to take care of these folks,”Moak said.

Hyde-Smith and Dist. 92 Rep. Dr. Jim Barnett estimated about5,000 transferred Medicaid recipients would not be covered byMedicare.

“We’re trying to do something to get them covered,” Barnettsaid.

Hyde-Smith said she wanted to make sure recipients’ coverage isnot affected.

“I’m extremely concerned about that,” Hyde-Smith said.

Aside from the Medicaid issue, Moak said the DHS reauthorizationbill is important to the future of that agency.

“We have a Department of Human Services that will cease to existJuly 1,” Moak said. “We’ve got to do that.”

In other legislative action during the special session thatbegan May 19, lawmakers batted .500 in approving a civil justice,or tort, reform bill but failing to agree on a voter identificationmeasure. With this not being an election year, Hyde-Smith said thevoter ID bill will undergo some more fine-tuning.

Lincoln County lawmakers were divided in their reaction to thetort reform bill. Hyde-Smith and Barnett applauded the measure.

“It addresses some very critical issues our state was facing,”Hyde-Smith said. “I hope it does correct some of the problems inthe state.”

The bill sets $1 million caps on most jury awards. That washigher than the $250,000 that some advocates had wanted.

“We had to compromise,” said Barnett

He called the legislation’s passage a great day for thestate.

“I was very pleased about the tort reform,” Barnett said.

Barnett credited pressure from constituents and a coalition ofconservative representatives sticking together as reasons for thetort reform passage.

“Our plan came together,” Barnett said.

However, Moak said more work in other areas, such as insurancerate caps, is needed if reforms are to materialize. He suggestedasking insurance companies if customers’ rates would be loweredbecause of the tort reform passage.

“I can tell you the answer is going to be no,” Moak said.

Moak said there were five votes in the House to roll backinsurance rates to 2001 levels. Alluding to insurance lobbypressures, he said the measure only passed in the House on thefifth vote and failed in the Senate.

Moak said he voted against the final tort reform measure becausehe said there was an agreement among negotiators to go toconference.

“There were some good reasons to go to conference,” said Moak,referring to opportunities for insurance rate action in connectionwith the tort reform.

Moak, who is a lawyer, also questioned the impact thelegislation would have on his profession.

“It’s not about lawyers making money,” said Moak, estimatingthat 98 percent of their practices would not be affected.