Medical groups pushing for Medicaid expansion

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri medical groups launched a campaign Wednesday to expand Medicaid coverage to thousands of working adults, citing a study estimating that the largely federally funded expansion could lead to 24,000 new jobs across the state.

The push to expand Missouri's Medicaid program may also gain support from Gov. Jay Nixon, who before his re-election this month had been noncommittal about whether the state should embrace the enlarged Medicaid program called for under President Barack Obama's health care law.

Nixon is planning news conferences today at Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, Barnes Jewish Center in St. Louis and Jordan Valley Community Health Center in Springfield.

Officials representing the Missouri Hospital Association plan to join Nixon for what the governor's office indicated would be "a major health announcement," said association spokesman Dave Dillon.

The hospitals and primary care associations are part of a coalition that announced a campaign Wednesday to try to persuade state officials to expand Medicaid eligibility by highlighting the economic benefits.

They released a study estimating that an additional 161,000 people would enroll in Medicaid if eligibility is expanded to adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The study said by 2014, increased Medicaid spending could lead to 24,000 jobs in nursing homes, hospitals, home-health care services, doctors' and dentists' offices and nonmedical industries such as retail stores and real estate developments.

Under a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, each state can decide whether to enact the Medicaid expansion called for under Obama's health care law. The federal government would pay the full cost of the expansion starting in 2014, but states would begin paying a 5 percent share in 2017, which would increase to 10 percent by 2020.

Republican state legislative leaders have expressed opposition to Medicaid expansion, citing concerns about whether the state could afford to pay its share of the costs. Nixon, a Democrat, has said only that he was reviewing Missouri's options.