Advocacy

NASW, Mississippi Chapter continues to strive to enhance the lives of all people in our state through legislative advocacy and social action. We call upon all social workers to join us to support social change. It is our duty as stated in our Code of Ethics that we support equal access for all people in our state to have access to resources and opportunities that allow them to meet their needs. Our chapter Board of Directors adopt a Mississippi Legislative Agenda each fall which includes support of social workers and the clients we all serve, and social justice priorities from our national association as well.

We also call upon social workers to support their profession and work for social justice in Mississippi by checking back frequently and watching for advocacy alerts, both state and national, throughout the year.

NASW, MS Chapter Position Statement on Universal Health Care

Adopted by the NASW, MS Board of Directors on January 20, 2018

The current U.S. health care system is broken. Despite the advances of the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans remain uninsured, and many millions more are underinsured, unable to afford the costs and deductibles associated with adequate health care coverage. Nowhere is the need for system change greater than in Mississippi, the unhealthiest state in the nation.

The NASW Mississippi Chapter believes that it is time to adopt a publicly financed, federally administered single-payer universal health care program that guarantees health care to all citizens, regardless of ability to pay. The U.S. system presently spends more on health care per person, yet produces poorer results, than any advanced nation in the world. Mississippians, along with all U.S. citizens, deserve better.

A federally administered single-payer universal program promises multiple advantages over the current system — including administrative simplicity, greater capacity to control costs, more equalized benefits, and enhanced ability to promote prevention over intervention — as well as the most important of all advantages, emphatically prioritizing people over profits. The time for fundamental reform is now.