MISSOURI HEALTH CARE: NEW LAWS ADDRESS ACCESS, COST

One of seven bills passed this year, designed to make health care more accessible and affordable for Missourians, was signed into law here Monday by Gov. John Ashcroft.

Accompanied by a group of state legislators, Ashcroft signed Senate Bill 796 at the Cape Girardeau County Health Department.

The measure is a small-employer health insurance program, which Ashcroft said will give 50,000 to 100,000 Missourians who do not have coverage access to health care.

"The program will pool small business insurance to spread the risk and promote affordability and access," said Ashcroft. "The legislation guarantees insurance for small businesses employing three to 25 workers, regardless of the health status or claims experience of their employers.

The governor explained that small insurance carriers must offer both standardized and basic benefit plans to small businesses, and must participate for a minimum of three years in the newly created "Missouri Small-Employer Health Reinsurance Program."

Another part of the bill deals with fraudulent insurance claims, provides for standardized claims forms to help reduce administrative costs, and includes a hospital data disclosure program supported by Ashcroft.

"Missourians cannot be active partners in health care decisions without information on cost and outcomes of health care providers," said the governor. "Attendees of the recent American Medical Association meeting in Chicago came to the same conclusion, calling on doctors to make fees for common procedures more public.

"By empowering citizens to make knowledgeable health care decisions, we are moving in the right direction of market-based reforms."

The bill signed here, along with six others signed Monday, puts Missouri at the national forefront of market-based health care reforms, Ashcroft said, adding that he is opposed to a socialized health care system.

"Some people believe that we should create a socialized, national health care system run out of Washington with more federal taxes and more federal spending," declared the governor. "I take a different approach. I believe improvements in health care should be made the American way, through the competition of a market-based free-enterprise system."

Other health care bills signed by Ashcroft Monday were:

SB-573: Establishes the crime of elderly abuse, and strengthens the Certificate of Need program by requiring that occupancy rates justify additional nursing home beds.

SB-611: Adds mumps to the list of required vaccinations of school children and makes it easier for health care providers to identify children in need of vaccinations.

HB-894: Allows Missourians to get birth and death records in their own counties rather than from the Department of Health in Jefferson City, and provides additional funding to the Children's Trust Fund to prevent child abuse and neglect.

HB-995: Supports the Newborn Screening Program by allowing the Department of Health to require testing for certain genetic diseases.

SB-721: Allows the Department of Health to regulate mammography, establishes a Drug Utilization Review Board to review and advise medical drug utilization in the Medicaid program, and authorizes the Department of Social Services to enroll qualified residential care facilities as Medicaid personal care providers.

HB-1574: Establishes a consolidated health care plan, with the potential to increase access and affordability through negotiated health care rates for large groups of public employees in a plan.

Ashcroft noted that in his State of the State address he had called for major reforms in health care.

"The significance of the health legislation enacted by the General Assembly and signed today underscores my belief and statements to Congress that health care reform is well under way in the states," declared Ashcroft. "States have become the think tanks and activators of real change in the foundations of our health care system."

Participating in the bill signing ceremony in Cape Girardeau were several legislators who had sponsored health bills or worked actively for them. On hand were: Sens. Marvin Singleton, R-Joplin, and Edwin Dirck, D-St. Ann, and Reps. Dave Oetting, R-Concordia, and Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau.

Also on hand was Charles Shields, director of the Missouri Department of Health.