Mo. House Dems announce plan for providing health insurance

Declaring that Missouri must craft a plan to provide affordable health insurance to every resident, Democratic leaders of the state House of Representatives outlined a plan Friday they said will help achieve that goal.

The first step, the Democrats said at a news conference in Scott City, is to reinstate coverage for 180,000 Missourians cut from the Medicaid program in 2005. Assistant Democratic Leader J.C. Kuessner of Eminence and Reps. Judy Baker, D-Columbia and Clint Zweifel, D-Florissant, were joined by Reps. Steve Hodges, D-East Prairie, and Terry Swinger, D-Caruthersville, in pushing the plan.

Restoring the Medicaid cuts would cost $155.8 million in state tax money, Baker said. By spending the money, she added, Missouri will gain $265.3 million in federal funds to match the state's expenses, she added.

In 2005, Gov. Matt Blunt, with support from the Republican-led legislature, cut Medicaid spending by setting the income eligibility at the lowest amount allowed by federal law. For a single parent with two children, the maximum income to be eligible for Medicaid is $292 a month.

The result, Baker said, is that Missouri has lost nearly $1 billion in federal funds that could have paid for health care for the poor. "Missouri has become a donor state, donating its money to other states that are expanding coverage," she said.

According to figures compiled by the Democrats, the number of Medicaid enrollees has dropped 15.4 percent in Scott County since 2005. For Cape Girardeau County, the figure is 13.6 percent.

Along with restoring Medicaid, the Democrats called for the establishment of a Missouri Health Policy Authority, with members appointed by the governor to represent insurers, providers and consumers, to craft policies that will make insurance coverage affordable. The state has 31 agencies, boards and commissions with responsibility for some portion of the health care system, Baker said, and the authority would have the power to coordinate the work of those agencies and make recommendations for change.

The authority would have an enforcement arm, Baker said, with an inspector general empowered to investigate allegations of Medicaid fraud and abuse with an emphasis on ferreting out corporate misdeeds.

"Instead of creating more bureaucracy, Missouri must streamline what it already has to ensure we get the most out of every taxpayer dollar spent on health care," Baker said.

The health care proposals are part of a new Democratic emphasis on developing policies and strategies for achieving goals through comprehensive work in between legislative sessions, Zweifel said. "You cannot make good policy just by walking in in January," he said.

And with term limits, he added, it is important to engage lawmakers like Hodges, who is serving his first term, and Swinger, who is in his second term, in policy making as early as possible in their legislative careers, Zweifel said. Lawmakers are limited to eight years in each chamber of the Legislature.

The new policy initiatives, Hodges said, "will help us rectify the problems we see in the state."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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