Circle 1: Access to Quality Healthcare

The Mississippi Free Press convened a virtual Solutions Circle on June 17, 2025, with about 40 attendees discussing health access and disparity challenges and brainstorming solutions. with our staff and this summer’s Mississippi Youth Media Project students to discuss their experiences. Our reporters and students listened in on these conversations, and kept notes about the issues and potential solutions participants came up with. Our YMP students will be using this experience as part of their summer projects. 

Then on Thursday, June 26, the YMP students and full MFP staff did an in-newsroom Solutions Circle to brainstorm and log specific story ideas either team can follow up separately or in collaboration.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this circle! If you’d like to hear about more circles, sign up here: http://mfp.ms/circlesinterest. Our next virtual circle is Tuesday, July 1, at 5:30 p.m. to identify types of freedom challenges and potential solution to inform our coverage. Please join if can.

Issues: 

  • Systemic Disparities & Inequity:
    • Not equal access to health care; other countries have better systems; cost is too high
    • Systemic racism concerns within the health care field for Black individuals.
    • Concerns that Black patients’ concerns are not heard/cared for by providers.
    • Need for Medicaid expansion (current Medicaid often only covers children, not mothers; expansion would help part-time workers or those without company coverage).
  • Health Care Workforce & Representation:
    • Shortage of Black doctors; desire for options in choosing a Black doctor.
    • Impact of DEI cuts on access to doctors and potential decline in Black medical students (10% first-year med students).
    • Misconceptions around DEI’s role; acknowledged help but need to ensure an equitable playing field. 
    • Patient trust is eroded due to lack of representation. Patients are hesitant to spend the money because of this. 
  • Rural Access):
    • Closure of many clinics in rural areas due to shrinking population and lack of funding

Potential Solutions:

  • Transportation:
    • Rideshare funding or shuttles for patients
  • Mobile & Community-Based Care:
    • Mobile clinics (though challenges with past removal in smaller populations).
    • Home visitations.
    • Increase access to Telehealth
  • Black Representation & Pipeline:
    • Starts in schools (providing extra tools/support for aspiring Black medical professionals).
    •  Affirmative action (as a means to even the playing field, not just for admissions).

The mission of the Mississippi Free Press, a new nonprofit journalism website and multimedia network that launched in March 2020, is to publish deep public-interest reporting into causes of and solutions to the social, political and structural challenges facing all Mississippians and their communities. Mississippians need to know each other across regions and share our challenges and solutions despite geographic and other differences. We are introducing Mississippians to each other through our deep accountability reporting and compelling people-focused storytelling, and by convening online and physical “solutions circles,” using our statewide networks to ensure inclusivity and representation.