A wide majority of Mississippians across partisan and demographic lines supports expanding Medicaid to provide health coverage for the working poor, according to a newly released Mississippi Today/Siena College poll.

The poll showed 80% of respondents — including 70% of Republicans — either strongly agree or somewhat agree the state should “accept federal funds to expand Medicaid.”

The numbers appear to show a continued shift of voter sentiment in what has long been a partisan battle. Mississippi’s elected Republican governors and other leaders for the last decade have blocked Medicaid expansion via the Affordable Care Act and the billions in federal dollars that would have come with it. This resistance continues even as struggling hospitals and more citizens in the poorest, unhealthiest state cry for help.

“Yes, I support it,” said Joy Cevera, 60, a Republican voter from Oxford who said she generally supports Gov. Tate Reeves but disagrees with him on Medicaid expansion. Several poll respondents agreed to talk with Mississippi Today about their responses.

For Cevera, a disability-retired cook, the issue is personal.

“I used to be one of the working poor,” she said. “I watched my son suffer because I couldn’t afford medical care for him … He’s now 35, and I’m still watching him suffer because he’s one of the working poor. There’s got to be something done. If other states can do it, why can’t we?”

The poll showed large majorities across partisan and demographic lines strongly support the state’s hospitals, large and small, being adequately funded and a majority believe state government has a responsibility to help poor, working people pay for basic healthcare. Vast majorities, including 91% of Republican voters, agree every Mississippian should have access to good health care.

“I think we do have a responsibility as a society to help folks, and sometimes the folks you’re helping aren’t your favorite folks, but too bad,” said Brad Dickey, 58, an engineer from Southaven who said he votes Republican at least 90% of the time. “The right to live is a basic right … They should expand it. We are an unhealthy state … I tell my friends who say they don’t want to give money to people who don’t work or can’t afford insurance, ‘Yes, but they have children.’